AS I was seen off the premises, a light-hearted warning: "I look forward to reading the piece. But woe betide you if there's a spelling mistake!"
The interview with John Light, rector of Edinburgh Academy, in his office at Henderson Row, had been
such that I could never expect my punishment to exceed anything much beyond 100 lines and two of the belt.
While he seemed to me a man of lightsome disposition, he smacked very much of the ideal man for the job he is vacating next month, after running the school for 13 years.
"There are three good reasons to be leaving now," he said. "One, come August we'll be fully co-educational. We currently have girls in our junior school and in our sixth form. There's been a gap there and we are about to fill it with more girls.
"Two, this is a good time to bring in a fresh face and Marco Longmore, an Invernessian who was deputy head of Alleyn's School in Dulwich, will be very much up to it. And three, I'm only 60 and life for me is by no means over. Another consideration: at 65 there's a chance I won't look as young for my age as I do now."
Mr Light can summon a ready smile, indicative of a gent happy at his work. Happy and privileged.
Reflecting on his tenure at Henderson Row, he says: "It's been nothing less than an absolute privilege. Certainly it hasn't been short on humour. There's been lots of that from staff and pupils alike.
"You'll hear people going on about youngsters today being unreliable but I see much of that criticism as harsh and unjustified. I saw at our concert in the Queen's Hall last Saturday a lot of good, positive people around as, indeed, I see them in other areas where the school is involved . . . on the sports field, in music, in drama.
"Besides, the vast majority of parents are very supportive, not only of the children but of the expectations of the school.
"We've always said to parents that we offer more than just exam grades. I wanted of my children that they should have the brains to work as well as being able to move on with a solid set of values."
A Yorkshireman born in Otley, near Leeds, Mr Light has an impressive grasp of family values. Married to a Dundonian, they have a son and three daughters. Their two younger daughters completed their education at the Academy.
"How pupils treat other people is probably the most important thing they could learn in school. My firm belief."
He also holds a belief in Edinburgh Academy and what it stands for. It was, after all, Sir Walter Scott who co-founded the school in 1824 and there are traditions to uphold and defend. Resolutely.
Among the former pupils, Scotland rugby captain Mike Blair has been back. Question Time, held there last month and hosted by Nicky Campbell, an FP, featured Nichol Stephen and Annabel Goldie. It was also the late Magnus Magnusson's alma mater.
Among the auspicious callers during Mr Light's tenure have been Princess Anne, who opened the junior school's sports hall, and former pupil Lord Falconer for the launch of the science department.
"There's lots of new building going on here, including a new nursery and after-school centre, and refurbishment of an old physics department. In sport, we'll have new all-weather pitches at New Field, Inverleith."
Within a year, the senior school, with its 50-strong teaching staff, will accommodate close on 500 pupils and 330 at junior level. "We'll have enough in each year, enough for people to aim for really high standards – not so much that it all becomes impersonal."
A team of governors monitor the running of the school. He says: "They defend a long tradition and I take my hat off to them because they are non-executive people and some of them put in an enormous amount of work.
"Do the best of which you are capable is my edict, so to speak. And the individuals who come back, the FPs, all exude a sense of humour, they do want to encourage young people."
I couldn't discern a motto on the dark blue blazers. If Leith Academy can splash a motto (Persevere) on its, why not its uptown counterpart?
In leapt Mr Light: "We do have a motto, of course . . . Always Excel. But it's hardly an ideal one to exhibit on blazers. It's in Greek." He had somehow sounded a tad bemused at my mention of Leith Academy until I quickly explained that I turned my back on academia when I came into newspapers.
"The first rector here (he prefers rector to headteacher) was John Williams. He was tutor to Walter Scott's son. I'm 16th in the line.
"We're a fairly small school and within, say, the past 15 years we've become much more cosmopolitan and, you know, we're not a school that has its nose in the air. Not a school where the pupils have needed to be born with a silver spoon in their mouth."
From the outset, Edinburgh Academy has had a military bent and we're going back to the Indian Mutiny. Over the wars it has won nine Victoria Crosses.
Its Combined Cadet Force still thrives and, in fact, Mr Light was bound the following night for the Castle Esplanade to watch the CCF pipe bands from all of Scotland's independent schools Beat the Retreat.
All I could say, speaking as the product of a lesser academy, was woe betide anybody who blew a bum note.
