The Ghosts of History

The interior of the cathedral, just after Mass

On Sunday, we had a free day and I attended Mass at the cathedral with a group of friends. I was not raised Catholic, nor am I particularly religious now, but I found the sermon quite welcoming and it was an incredibly inspiring experience to listen to such beautiful music in an 800 year old cathedral, where Masses such as the one I attended have been going on for centuries.

Afterwards, I went shopping down Gandy Street and in the Guildhall with a friend before meeting up with the rest of the group for an Indian buffet for lunch at the New Taj Mahal Restaurant. The selection was more limited than we thought it was going to be, but what it lacked in quantity it more than made up for in quality. Everything was very tasty and I enjoyed the music and atmosphere as well (I've always loved Indian music, particularly the sitars).

I finished the day off with a relaxing stroll through the Royal Albert Memorial Museum. You may remember that I visited this place before, but since I had not seen all of the exhibits, I thought it would be nice to go back. I wasn't disappointed! There were two beautiful art galleries that I had missed, which featured paintings of Dartmoor and the Devon area. There was also an exhibit that featured various artifacts and geological specimens from Devon, dating from millions of years ago all the way up until recent times. I'm actually planning to go back there again some time after class next week!

Random anecdote: On the way back to campus from the museum, I was caught in a horrendous rainstorm, which is perhaps more in keeping with English weather than the past few weeks have been. Even with my raincoat and 'brolly' (umbrella) I was still soaking wet by the time I got back to campus.

The next day, Monday, I had class, which was taught by the eminent historian, Professor Jeremy Black. We discussed military history and how it is perceived by different nations. This lecture made me completely rethink my views on military history and on militaries in general. Living in the US, the country with the largest military in the world, and which also has a strong history of foreign military involvement, has always led me to see militaries as powers dedicated to fighting foreign threats. However, in many countries, the military is used primarily to quell domestic disputes and to even conduct more mundane affairs such as quarantining diseased cattle! Even though I knew militaries were used to control civil unrest on other nations, I never thought of that as being the primary function of the vast majority of the world's militaries, but that completely makes sense in hindsight and I'm glad that Professor Black was able to elucidate that for me. The whole class was extremely impressed with Professor Black's extensive knowledge on the subject and the global approach he brought to the discussion. This lecture was definitely one of my favorites thus far!

How the tea was originally set up

The 'proper' way to have a cream tea - the jam goes on top

After class, we went to the cathedral for a traditional Devon or Devonshire cream tea. A cream tea is not, as I first thought it was, simply tea with cream in it. Instead it is tea served with scones and clotted cream and jam. In Devon, the proper way of eating a scone is to spread the clotted cream on first before adding the jam. In Cornwall, people do the opposite. Apparently, there is a bit of a rivalry between the two counties over which way of eating the scones is the proper way. I tried both and I have to say that I prefer the Devon way and not just because I'm in Devon! It is more convenient to spread the cream on first and it tastes too!

We had a nice discussion about Game of Thrones over the cream tea and we all left feeling quite full. In fact, I was hardly hungry at all for my dinner that night!

Tuesday's lecture was given by Dr David Thackeray on the global slave trade and abolitionism. The seminar portion of class included a trip to the Bill Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture. the centre is a small cinema museum that is located right on the university's campus. There are two galleries filled with artifacts dating back to the 17th century all the way up to the present. The older artifacts are precursors to film entertainment. More recent items on display include Star Wars and Disney memorabilia.

Whilst at the centre, we examined some materials from their archives, which I found to be an interesting and hands on approach to our seminar. Our task was to look at depictions of slavery and its aftermath in popular culture. My favorite items were a souvenir program from one of the original screenings of The Birth of a Nation and a film magazine with an article about Django Unchained, which I had seen in theatres last December. The Birth of a Nation was the first feature-length film every produced. It was released in 1915 and set the precedent for how films are made, even today. It was a technical achievement on almost every level. The film's director, D.W. Griffith, invented the close-up, which was initially derided by critics who complained that the actors seemed to "float" onscreen. For those reasons, The Birth of a Nation is regarded as an important part of cinematic history. However, this film is horribly tainted by the blatant racism that runs rampant, especially through its second half, which comes from its source material, a book called The Clansmen. Essentially, the Ku Klux Klan are portrayed as valiant heroes, riding to the rescue of Southern whites victimized by devious Northern carpetbaggers and recently freed black slaves, with the latter being portrayed as savage beasts. It was interesting for me to read the program and find that there were some contemporary critics were alarmed at the racism in the film - I had always thought that no (white) critics had particularly cared or noticed at the time. After reading about The Birth of a Nation, it was interesting to look at an article about Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, which was structured in part as the inverse of The Birth of a Nation (Tarantino had certain scenes in mind from the 1915 film which he deliberately subverted). However, the film still came under fire for what was seen as an excessive use of racial slurs and was accused simultaneously as being racist toward both blacks and whites, a reminder that issues of race are yet to be resolved in America and elsewhere in the world.

Discover the Bill Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture at: http://www.exeter.ac.uk/bdc/

The remains of the almshouse destroyed by the blitz

On Tuesday night, some friends and I went out for one of Exeter's Red Coat Guided Tours. The tours are free to the public and leave everyday from the Cathedral Yard. The Red Coats give a variety of guided tours, which have different themes depending on what time you go. We attended the 'Ghosts & Legends' tour, which included stops along the cathedral and High Street, as well as a trip down a pub cellar to see the skeletons of John and Martha, a monk and a nun who supposedly committed suicide together rather than face the consequences of their love affair's exposure. We heard tales about ghost carriages, pub curses, and the Devil wandering Dartmoor. But perhaps the eeriest part of the tour did not include an actual 'ghost' story at all! We went into the ruins of an almshouse that had been destroyed during the blitz, where our guide simply told us the story of what happened without adding any ghostly elements. I had passed by the ruins before on trips into town, but I had never realized what they were. You can still see the foundations of each room the poor men would have stayed in. Having lived in America all my life, a country that has never been bombed, with the exception of Pearl Harbor, it was strange and horrifying to see the remnants of such destruction.

Our tour guide

The ghost tour never got particularly scary, especially since none of it was conducted after dark, but I still enjoyed myself. At the end of the tour, we received certificates of survival, which was perhaps owed to the protection stickers our guide gave us at the beginning to ward off evil spirits ;)

Exeter's Red Coat Guided Tours offer other free themed trips around Exeter. Unfortunately, most of these other tours leave in the middle of the day when I have class or when I am involved with another social programme, but if I get a chance, I'd like to do another one. Learn more about Exeter's Red Coat Guided Tours here at: http://www.exeter.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=668

Mmm!

A friend and I finished the night off with some Banoffee Pie ice cream at the Ruby Diner in town before heading back to campus to get ready for next day's trip to the Eden Project.

The Eden Project will have its own post, which will hopefully be up soon. Thank you for reading!