History

[elingregory]

History, by which I mean the bits of it that people have heard about, is never as far away as one might think.

I was listening to my mother reminisce recently and she was talking about her father having visited an uncle who was a warder at Dartmoor Prison, around 1900 or so. Cue lots of Grimpen Mire imaginings from me. This impression was multiplied ten fold when I made some comments about transport - ie that he must have travelled by train - and she agreed that he had for the first part of the journey but when he reached Exeter he transferred to the regularly scheduled stage coach.

A stage coach! My grandpa travelled by stage coach when he was a little boy! He must have seen ostlers and team changing and maybe on the wilder bits they were on the look out for highwaymen? [Okay, that's probably silly but having an over-active imagination is what I DO.]

Comments

[wulfila.livejournal.com]

That's really exciting - history becomes so much more tangible indeed if one's own family members are involved in some manner.

[elin-gregory.livejournal.com]

It does. A few months ago I had a long conversation with a man who was one of the three children rescued from the wreck of the City of Benares during WW2. That's a harrowing story, but when one is face to face with someone who was there, who can point to part of the deck on a picture of the ship and say "That's where I last saw my brother and sister" it becomes that much more 'real'.