ANNE BOON of Collaton Road, Malborough, writes: It was with interest that I read the recent articles in the Gazette about the mansion house that was Syon Abbey. As a child I visited the abbey for many years with my parents to see a very dear friend of theirs, Sister Mary Cecelia, who was a nun there. We went two or three times a year for afternoon tea. The tea was laid out in the large hall and when we arrived the housekeeper would bring in the tray of tea and a large jug of milk. We had tea on our own while the nuns were at prayer in the chapel. When we had finished and the prayers concluded, the housekeeper would take us up the large flight of stairs to a room that was divided in half by a wooden screen, which was solid at the bottom half and the top half a grill of small squares. The bottom half had a drawer into which you could pass things through to either side. Sister Cecelia would be on one side and us the other. As I loved cats, one of the other sisters would put the abbey's pet cats into the drawer and push them through to me and they were returned the same way. My parents continued to visit the sister until she passed away.