I doubt whether those ould Romans would have understood much of the Latin Mass, though I must confess that, as a smallish lad and we still endured such things, I found it rather poetic and I liked to try to match the Latin with the somewhat, at times, loose translation in the opposite column on the missal page. I can remember marching around our school playing fields on Corpus Christi on a hot sunny day (a rarity in Bolton), lustily belting out Lauda Sion Salvatorem without having a clue what we were singing about but hugely enjoying it anyway. In hymnis et canticis!

I did Latin to 'O' Level and passed the exam, though I might have done better had I bothered to learn the Virgil, which was a large chunk of the exam. I always regarded the translating of the poetry into English whilst trying to turn it into "poetic English" as well was a strain too far. I'm always glad that I did Latin for five years and regard it now as one of the most valuable parts of my education.