In the last academic year, various resident students and others in contact with Ely were lamenting the fact that they had never been given the option of studying Latin in school. They felt deprived of what they considered to be an essential part of their Western European cultural heritage. The question was asked: could Ely help by organising some Latin classes? In the beginning it seemed like a strange request. But then, we thought: why not? We searched for a suitable textbook and found it in the excellent Reading Latin by Peter Jones and Keith Sidwell, published by Cambridge University Press. Oisín Timoney, a graduate of Ancient Roman History from The University of Cambridge kindly volunteered to be our Latin Professor. The big surprise was when five students turned up for the first class all keen to get an insight into the language and culture of ancient Rome. We hope that the classes will continue and that the teaching of Latin will be a permanent part of academic year activities at Ely. Maybe we will be able to have articles in Latin on this web-page in due course!