Let me try and explain. When I go to Warwick Castle and watch a jousting tournament I know it isn't Henry VIII and his compatriots taking part (obviously). I know that those taking part aren't trying to kill or injure each other and that the so called tournament is scripted down to the finest detail. In other words it's an entertainment.
And I can never get past the thought that these are people dressed up.
Many decades ago we went to Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. I have had an interest in American history since studying it for A level. Colonial Williamsburg was just that - colonial. Everyone (including some of the tourists) were dressed in colonial garb and those employed to be dressed in colonial garb spoke a kind of mangled English/American. To me it made everything seem false. Here we were in the 20th century pretending that we were in the 17th century but wearing 20th century clothes and talking to people wearing mock 17th century clothes that had been made in the 20th century. Confused? We were.
After visiting Colonial Williamsburg we walked to the parking lot, got in our very large American car and drove back round the Baltimore Beltway with its six lane highway. You see you can't really step back into the past when all around you is in the present and you have to return to that present.
That's why when I'm visiting historic sites I want to use my imagination. It's a bit like reading a book. You picture what's happening in your mind as you read the printed word.
But nevertheless I enjoyed going to the Old Rectory in Great Melton where all the guides were dressed up. The Old Rectory now hosts weddings but yesterday was open for charity with proceeds being split between Great Melton Church and the East Anglian Air Ambulance - a charity I am raising funds for throughout this year.
I must admit I was a touch mischievous with some of the dressed up people. The Rector was having trouble writing a sermon.
I asked him if he was writing it by hand.
"Is there another way?" he quickly responded.
I glanced around the room at the bookshelves.
"What exactly is Windows XP?"
Back came the response
"I think it's a book about the sash windows."
I hope you enjoy a few of my photographs. I will be putting some of them in my Hethersett Herald e-magazine and in the Good News Church Magazine.
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The announcement that author Hilary Mantel has died came as something of a shock. Time to hold my hands up and admit that I've never read one of her books. No not even the Wolf Hall Trilogy despite having the books and being interested in Tudor History. Methinks it's time to seek them out and read one of them, particularly as one of her other novels is set in rural Norfolk.