25 June 2015
Anniversaries as Dates
by Chin Chin
As anniversary years go, 2015 is something of a vintage. We have just had Magna Carta and Waterloo, both duly celebrated by solemn ceremonies and supplements in the press. In September there is the 700th anniversary of Agincourt. No doubt that will be celebrated too – probably by an outbreak of archery competitions.
Each of those anniversaries represents two quite different things. First, there is the event itself. In the case of Magna Carta, that was a curtailment of royal power. In the case of Agincourt and Waterloo, there were serious kickings for the French and, if you feel that we shouldn’t celebrate the defeat of a country which is now an ally, go to Versailles and see how the French portray their own victories. Your sympathy will soon dry up.
The second thing is simply a date, a reference point in the passing of time. If history is a record of events, then to make sense of that record we need a way to order them in our minds and to identify when they occurred. That means learning dates. They can be the dates of battles, the dates of the English kings and queens or the dates on which new fashions in hosiery were introduced to the market. It doesn’t much matter which, although royal dates have the advantage that they occur fairly regularly. The key is to have a framework to rely on for context; a framework will also jog the memory because that is how the human memory works.
It is hard to persuade the younger generation that there was life before Facebook, let alone life before computers or even televisions had been invented. Yes, they will grudgingly admit that there must have been some sort of existence, the educational system has done that much for them, but to call it “life”? After all, what on earth happened in the evenings?
The answer to that, of course, is parlour games. No, not just the naughty sort like “sardines in swimwear,” which we all remember with such affection, but good healthy character-forming games like “I spy” and “I packed in my trunk”. The latter was a memory game where each participant round the table had to recite a list of items already mentioned by the others and then add another one at the end. A novice at the game might find a list of twelve or so quite challenging but for the serious professional (say someone playing for large amounts of money which he owed to a ruthless Chinese syndicate because of an unwise bet on a hopscotch match) there were sophisticated techniques which enabled a much longer list to be recalled. One of them was to associate each item on the list with the person who had added it. The trouble with that was that it became hard to keep a straight face. Just try associating a bikini with someone who looks like Boris Johnson. Then try linking a pair of working boots with just about anyone from Hampstead. Then try associating a spiky dog collar with a buxom young lady…… no, on second thoughts don’t try that. It’s all right, editor, I’ll take a sip from my medicine bottle and move on.
The second technique is to have by rote a standard list of 100 or so anodyne objects against which each item in the game could be matched. When your turn came you simply went down the list but always gave the name of the associated object rather than the one on the list itself. Much the same technique is used in the best “improve your memory” courses, although how it enables you to find the car keys you have mislaid I am not quite sure.
Anyway this is where the list of dates comes in. Have a list of dates at about thirty-year intervals at your fingertips and try to associate events with a place in the sequence. You will be surprised at how successful it can be. Imagine that an art dealer, a reliable one who drops his aitches and wears a flat cap, is trying to sell you a painting. It is of Robin Hood and his merry men in the Greenwood eating a beef and potato salad. Okay, not a salad exactly, they are far too macho for that, say beef and potato wrapped in stinging nettles. Anyway the dealer swears that it is a work contemporary with its subject and asks the high price you would expect for a rare piece of mediaeval art.
Now you know that Robin Hood was around in the days of good King Richard and one of your dates is his accession in 1189. You also know that the potato came to Britain with Walter Raleigh, who was around when good Queen Bess died in 1603. Bingo, the painting cannot be contemporary. The potato dates it as surely as radiocarbon. It must have been painted in Sir Walter’s day – perhaps from an earlier photograph.
In practice most things are dated by the reigns of the kings and queens. A nice piece of George II furniture? It must be between 1727 and 1760. A nice Regency house? That must be about 1815 – we know that was Regency because it was the Prince Regent who received the French eagles after Waterloo. And so on. A list of dates puts a whole indexing system at your command and a language too. It is one thing to know that a particular form of foot indicates that a chest of drawers is William and Mary but that doesn’t tell you much unless you know when William and Mary actually reigned.
If we want our children to understand and appreciate what is around them we have to give them the power to see it for what it is and to put it in some sort of context. Off on a long haul flight to Florida? Need something for the family to do? You could do worse than start with William the Conqueror and work your way through.
