Handwriting Talk and Lacock
This morning's talk on deciphering 16th and 17th century handwriting was excellent. It wasn't a talk with slides but a much more hands on session where we were given copies of documents held in the records office to read and, thanks to a combined group effort (all 25 of us), we managed it. Once you get used to the different conventions of forming letters it isn't too hard. We decided that we could all cope in the future ... providing we had the rest of the group with us!
We had some interesting documents to work with. Extracts of text from the letter on the top of the pile in the photo relates to the Seymour family and features in Hilary Mantel's final book in her Wolf Hall series. The copy immediately below that is an extract from a register detailing the cross-examination of a woman accused of witchcraft and confirms that charges were dismissed. The level of detail of a long lost way of life which can be found in old document always fascinates me.
Then it was back to Lacock for lunch and to take a few photos. I have enough for the U3A challenge, nothing special but I have a selection to show so I'm happy with that. Tomorrow's job is to edit them and covert to jpegs.
The single music lesson went reasonably smoothly. This child is making steady progress though I think is one of those children who will stop playing when it's time to move up to senior school ... the signs are there!
So tomorrow the priority is to edit the photos which won't take too long and I hope to get them finished by the time G turns up to cut my hair. I don't have any firm plans for the afternoon but will definitely be staying in. I've had two busy days and am out again on Thursday so would like a quieter, please myself sort of afternoon.
Sounds like you really enjoyed that handwriting talk! It must have been a fun exercise to try to decipher the documents. Something like that makes it more interesting than simply listening and seeing slides, I would imagine. I'm glad you were able to get your street photos. I hope you'll share some of them on your blog, too. Hope you have a relaxing day, tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteIt was a really good talk, full of quirky facts and presented by someone who knew his subject and was generous in sharing his knowledge. Yes, I took my photos and have added some of them in my next post.
DeleteIt sounds interesting.
ReplyDeleteI need to attend a talk like that, to learn how to read some of my students’ handwriting. LOL
It was very interesting, Nil.
DeleteHandwriting is almost becoming a lost skill with the amount of work we all do on computers. Maybe that's why your student's handwriting is so bad?
What a fascinating talk and such fun to get hands on like that.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to seeing the photos, or some of them anyway, at some point, pretty please.
xx
The talk was brilliant and if it is representative of the quality of their other events I have found a good source of interesting and quirky talks.
DeleteI've included some of my phots in my next post.
I think trying to read those documents could be both fun & frustrating. It's funny you have mentioned signs being presented to the music students ... I chuckle because that is my March Angel Thought, Signs.
ReplyDeleteThe hardest part wasn't working out the different letter shapes and spellings, but actually recognising the references to items and ways of life that are no longer in regular use.
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