"A Farewell to Kiplin"

One of our projects on this trip has been volunteering at Kiplin Hall, a 17th century manor and home to the founder of Maryland. The job that Andrew and I were given was to review the archives. We weren't sure what to expect and after a full day of reviewing documents about installing a pond we weren't hopeful that it would get too exciting.

Our luck changed the next week when we found a play that the last Kiplin resident, Bridget Talbot wrote. In an attempt to save her home, which was falling apart, she turned to the National Trust and later the British government and was turned away. Her reaction to this news was to write a play called "A Farewell to Kiplin," that demonstrated not only her disgust with the whole process but also her plan B on how to save the house.

The scenes of this play are engaging, mostly because they play up the extremes of the mid-1950's. She has the government officials come in and discuss the various ways they are going to ruin the house. These ideas go from the very extreme (H-bomb), to political (turning it into a communist school), and immediate acts of destruction (throwing darts at a famous painting.)

Another tactic used in the play is bringing in foreigners (American, Russian, Indonesian) to show their reactions to the manor. No tourists are featured more prominently than the American one, who confesses that no matter how much money America has it will never be able to have historical homes as old as Kiplin. The American tourist gets increasingly upset about the house not being saved, especially when he learns that the house belonged to the man who started the Maryland colony. This was intentional by Bridget whose plan B was to get American support in saving the house. She even goes so far as to call the house "an American shrine." It didn't completely work in getting her house saved, that part would come later, but this play did reach an American audience and Bridget Talbot was heard.

Is this play over dramatic? Absolutely! Yet when you get beyond that I think this play really shows the struggle that Bridget went through. She clearly loved her home and was prepared to do a lot to save it, and I admire her tenacity. Working at the archives and seeing the first hand accounts of the preservation process makes being in Kiplin an even more enjoyable experience because you know about the effort that went in to saving it.

Today when I walked through Kiplin and said my own farewell, I couldn't help but think that Bridget Talbot would be very happy that her home has not only be restored but that it is a thriving part of the historic community in North Yorkshire.


                                       Kiplin Hall

(Photo Courtesy of Robert Olguin)

The Quest to Find Cannoli

This is the tale of the quest I found myself over the past few weeks. It is may not seem like the most exciting tale, but a great discovery did hang in the balance.

When we first began our trip, Andrew, one of my classmates, expressed a rather intense desire to find a cannolo. (More on exactly what this food is later on.) He had spent the last few days in London but had not succeeded at finding this particular pastry. For the next week or so, Andrew’s periodic request to find cannoli was either ignored, or joked about by the rest of the group. However since I am quite the “proper” competitive person, after a couple weeks I began to see the search for cannoli as a personal challenge to my ability to locate something.

The quest began quite slowly. All I did at first was glance over the menus I saw on the outside of various Italian restaurants wherever we happened to be. Before too long, the entire group was not only looking over the menus on Italian restaurants, but also actually going a little out of our way just to search out these places. All of our efforts were to no avail.

This past Monday, we continued our search in York, despite the fact that Andrew was not with us. York possesses a great number of Italian restaurants within the city walls, and between the four of us there, I honestly believe we looked at the menus for all of these places. Not a single one offered cannoli. This was when I decided to take our search to the next level. For the challenge was no longer Andrew’s personal desire to eat the pastry; it was now a grand foreign quest for our group. If we failed, our entire voyage would have been in vain. (Ok, maybe not the entire voyage, but we would be really bummed.)

After returning to our base at the Coach House, I ran a keyword search and located a single café that sold cannoli, just outside of York’s walls. Then, using a “highly-detailed” map, I marked the location of our destination. We were officially prepared for the final stage of our quest.

The "highly-detailed" map of York. Also known as, a marked up tourist map. 

The marked location of the Cannoli. 

Tuesday afternoon, we set off around the walls of York. For two of us, the walk meant we would have completed an entire circuit of the city’s walls in our two days there. But this walk meant something much more than a silly accomplishment. This walk allowed us to fulfill our destinies through the completion of our quest.

Robert walking all the way around York on the city's walls with me. 

When we arrived at Skeldergate Bridge, we continued walking along Bishopgate Street, rather than climbing back up on the wall. After approximately three blocks, we found ourselves in front of Trinacria: Sicilian Café Bar. Inside, we found several varieties of cannolo. Our object fulfilled, we completed our quest by returning to the walls of York and completing our circuit.

Cannoli: the object of our quest.

Some of your may be wondering why we struggled so much to find cannoli here in the UK. As it turns out, these little fried tube-like pastries traditionally filled with ricotta cheese are a Sicilian dessert that American Italian cuisine has adopted. In other countries, including mainland Italy itself, the owners of Italian restaurants haven’t even heard of cannoli. So our grand quest led not only to the sweet dessert itself, but also to a little more knowledge regarding the differences between the US and UK. 

The Personification of Tom-Tom

Ever since we began our journey we have been guided with the help of a Sat-Nav. The beauty of these devices is that you can program different voices to read you directions. While it would be wonderful if Snoop Lion or Arnold Schwarzenegger were available choices they also were only available to premium subscribers. However. We had plenty of voices left to choose from. The default voice was Serena (who had a voice that sounded like a computer). We very quickly tired of her and moved on to Tim (The Brit). His accent provided some general amusement, but he was no James (The Australian). He turned out to be the group favorite and also had the most "proper" phrases. For example, "next chance you get pull a U-eeee" or "Make sure you toss those back seat drivers out and bear right."

Another fun curveball we came across was the sound of a cow, aka moo-ing. Apparently, whoever last rented the car changed the factory settings to moo at any warnings the navigation system had to tell us. We definitely had a good laugh once we realized what it was. Though we did not realize what the moo-ing meant until a day or two later…

With such a wonderful experience the first time around, we made sure when we arrived in the North our new car had a directional unit. The initial voice was very lame and uneventful so it was quickly changed to something a bit more flavorful. Sean (The Irishman), is a delightful little man who doesn't take our ignorance very well. The other day there was an unknown chemical spill on the motorway and so we had to improvise a way around it. This was DEFINITELY not the way Sean wanted us to go. He made it extremely clear. So for the next 20 minutes or 11 miles he continued yelling at us. He used every different phrase he could think of to trick us into U-turning. "Go around the round about, fourth exit (when there were only 4 exits)" "Turn right, then right again" Luckily, we out smarted him and he eventually rerouted. 

Ever since we have had our programmable GPS it seems we have personified the voice into a live person. When we are upset that Tim (The Brit) led us down a 5 foot wide street with a moat on one side and construction on the other, we yell at Tim. When James (The Aussie) said something funny we thanked him for the joke and laughed away. Or when Sean (The Irishman) kept yelling at us we told him he had too much to drink at the Irish pub and to properly reroute us. They have been a wonderful source of entertainment, direction, and we cannot wait to make more memories with our A.I. voices.

English Food?

Over the course of the last couple weeks, several of us have been on the lookout for odd/English foods to try. I am sure I have not identified everything but I think this list has at least made a good dent. Coming to Britain, I did not expect to find much difference from America besides blander taste but I have been pleasantly surprised.

Fish and Chips: This one was obvious to me from the beginning. I have had this twice so far, once in London and once in Cornwall; of course with the vinegar ketchup- and actually liked it the second time. On my first day in Penryn, we went to a restaurant called “Nemo’s” and had “take away” orders for dinner. As we ate outside a man came up to us and asked how the chips were, to which we responded that they were ok. The man started to walk away, but not out of ear-shoot yelled to his friend that we said they were ok but “they’re Americans…”  

Clotted Cream and “Scones”: Another English classic we tried out on our first day in Falmouth (day two of the field school); I greatly enjoyed them with jam. We have also tried clotted cream fudge and ice cream! Just make sure you don’t mistake the cream for ice cream or else you’ll basically end up with a spoonful of butter in your mouth.

Crisps (American Chips): Basically they are the same thing, but I have encountered weird flavors, mainly with a stronger vinegar taste. I have tried Worcestershire, and Salt and Vinegar. I saw a Ketchup flavored bag, but resisted the urge to try it out, maybe later.

Lamb Burgers: When I went to Nemo’s, I ordered a burger expecting to get a beef burger. I think the meat instead was lamb. Since then I have seen advertisements for “beef burgers” so I guess the lamb is the default. What greater sign that you are not in America when you have to specify the burger is made of beef?

Indian Curry: I count Indian curry since Robert explained to me that as a result of the British Empire, men returning from India started to recreate the dishes they enjoyed overseas so now Britain has a strong Indian restaurant culture. Apparently there are several books on the subject.

Pasty: To anyone visiting Cornwall, you have to try a pasty. Since they are very portable and mining was a major industry in the region, miners would grab a pasty before heading down. Pretty much it is a pastry that is filled either meat or vegetables with flaky crusts. And yes any pasty outside of Cornwall is not the same.

English Breakfast: This one we made for breakfast two days ago. It consists of frying tomatoes, mushrooms, bacon, eggs, and sausage; as well as buttered toast and the infamous black pudding (very odd texture, google it if you actually want to know what it is). Not sure if I’ll eat black pudding again but you have to try it once.

Potato Jacket: I have not had this myself, but have seen this very often. Pretty much they take a backed potato and pour soup or chili on top of it. To our amusement, the American Museum served this in their café I think as an example of our type of food.

“American” Pizza: This is pretty much pepperoni pizza but from some reason pizza chains identify it as American.

It has been a great time eating my way through England. Still have a little over a week to go so hopefully the list will get longer. Next stop is Scotland...

Guest Post from Alice

For our first week in Cornwall, we partnered with the University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus. Alice Elliot, one of the 2nd year Cornish students, is guest contributing this post about her experience with public history.

The week that the University of South Carolina Masters students came to visit provided us with a great range of opportunities! The week commenced with a welcome drink where we were able to introduce ourselves to each other and discuss our contrasting countries, universities and cultures. Our next encounter took us on a trip to the Godolphin House, Helston, where we spent the day exploring the house and gardens. We analysed, discussed and reflected upon the practice of public history within the National Trust property and suggested improvements for the site. Saturday hosted our public history workshop and allowed us to thoroughly converse about our experiences in the field, comparing the American Masters programme to our undergraduate curriculum. The day was most stimulating as we inspected key issues in public history and how to further our study into the subject, perhaps even pursuing a career into it! Finally, on the Saturday evening we parted ways with a delicious meal at the Greenbank hotel and said farewell to our American guests!

Not only was the experience useful, but I really enjoyed it too. We were able to meet a group of interesting, lovely and entertaining Americans who we could share our knowledge of Public History together. Our various experiences and studies complimented each other as it allowed us to have a taste of English, American, undergraduate and post-graduate Public History. Overall, the week and the prospects it presented have encouraged me and some other students to consider furthering our work in Public History.

England Old

One of my favorite things to do when walking through an old graveyard is to look at the dates on the tombstones. I have a little game I play of trying to find the "oldest" person on site. This might have started when I was little and used to play hide and seek in a graveyard with my grandfather… I digress. Generally speaking, when one is in America the dates (especially on the West Coast) do not really range farther back than 1860/ 1900s. On the East Coast you have the chance of seeing a lot more 1800s some 1700s. As expected, this is not what it is like over here in England. The other day I was standing over a grave with the year of 1688. As if it was no big deal…

As a group, this has actually been an ongoing discussion about what constitutes the term "old". The American term for old or ancient is nowhere close to what the English understand it to be. The amount of "old" over here is ridiculous. Every day it is like, "this castle was built in 1056" or "Back in the 16th century the family of the current family bought this castle.." (By the way, make sure you say this in your best British accent) It is just so commonplace over here. It definitely makes me feel lame as an American, though we have an excuse since our country was not even close to being founded back then. Let alone, I cannot trace my family back 700 plus years and they definitely did not own a castle.

Another interesting aspect of this was brought up by one of the other students Kim. She asked one of our guest lecturers what the definition of "ancient" means to people over here. While she was asking in more of an academic context, I still think the answer has relevance. His response was that when people first started protecting and preserving monuments and buildings they considered the term "ancient" to categorize the prehistory age; i.e. Stonehenge. However, nowadays the term has started to include things that are medieval as well. While this is one interpretation of the term, I think it has been confirmed with the many sites we have seen.

As an outsider, everything we have been seeing would easily fall into the category of ancient, yet it is not the same for England, since the country has been around forever. To us in America, medieval was always a given ancient. But then. I guess there comes a point when you have to differentiate in some fashion and that is supposedly how they have done it. I am still having trouble acknowledging that 18th and 19th century buildings are "newly old" but it has provided a new way for me to view sites and places. I think before I was biased and misguided in the idea that something is super old, therefore, we must preserve it. Now with this abundance of ancientness constantly around me, I have begun to understand that just because something is old it does not necessarily mean we must preserve it, rather we need to look to additional criteria like cultural significance, aesthetic value, its history, etc. Seems like my experiences and participation over here are having an affect after all.

Audio Tours

One of the first places we visited during this field school was St. Mawes Castle in Cornwall. St. Mawes is often overshadowed by its sister castle Pendennis, partly as a result of accessibility (as we had to use a ferry to get to Mawes) and because much more history (and effort) is being interpreted in Pendennis. Both sites are run by English Heritage, but while St. Mawes primarily only focuses on the 16^th century, Pendennis goes through the World Wars. Most people whom I have talked to prefer Pendennis, however Max (another student) and I both enjoyed St. Mawes more because we both liked its audio tour.

I think audio tours can be a great way to explore a site. They allow you to wonder around at your own pace and if a topic strikes your interest, you can chose to listen to more commentary. However as we have visited other sites, I have realized some drawbacks as well. Since St Mawes we have always said yes to any opportunity for audio tours, but I have found they so far have not been able to replicate the experience we first had.

 (An audio tour device that many sites use, this one is from St. Mawes. Simply select a number, press play, and hold it to your ear.)

Most recently we visited Whitby Abbey, a very nice site overlooking the North Sea. I eagerly started the audio tour, which as usual had much more information that any of the text panels and gave a more chronological order to events. However I was not able to listen to more than a fraction of the tour since the rest of the group whom had chosen not to use the audio tour wanted to move on. I therefore felt rushed and missed most of what I wanted to hear. It was later pointed out to me that I could have separated from the group and done my own thing, but I did not want to be left behind. I think my (and Max’s) experience at Whitby is representative of what other visitors could go through- the pressure of being rushed by their group. Therefore I believe audio tours are best when the site is relatively uncrowded and a visitor is willing to go it alone if only for the tour.

Another common problem that I even experienced at St. Mawes was getting lost. Some sites are better than others directing the way you are supposed to go, but I have always made at least a couple wrong turns. Since St. Mawes was a relatively small, uncrowded castle I was able to correct myself quickly, but in others I ended up just skipping ahead. At Whitby Abbey, I started down the wrong path going straight toward the abbey instead of taking a right turn away from the building (eventually circling back). The Rievaulx Abbey tour seemed even more confusing to me as the information desk gave me a map to find where to stand when listening to the tour. The American Museum also had audio tours, but I quickly stopped using it partially because I wondered into the rooms out of order and docents wanted to talk with me and were put off that I had a listening device to my ear most of the time.

Overall I think audio tours can work and be successful, but only under the correct circumstances. Several museums do not use them and I would not necessarily want them to since people seem to wonder all over the place from one exhibit to another. I think the tours are at their best for visitors who are willing to move at their own pace without a group pushing you along, and at a site that does a good job directing where you should wonder next (and preferably not too crowded!).