Season's Greetings 2022/3

The committee hopes that you have been enjoying the 2022/3 programme so far and thank you for your support. (We think there are some great talks scheduled over the coming months). Remember, there is no December meeting so there is no opportunity to wish you Season's Greetings before our "The Mystery & Magic of Egyptian Hieroglyphs" Nick da Costa on 27th January.

Being lazy and wishing to be seen to be moving with the times, we commissioned ChatGPT to compose a Christmas rhyme for our members.

 

'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the land,

The past was alive, preserved by the hand

Of historians and scholars, who worked with such care

To keep all our traditions and stories so fair.

 

The society members were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of history danced in their heads.

But while they waited, they looked back in time

To the Christmases of old, so rich and so fine.

 

They thought of the stories and songs they all know,

Of Santa Claus and his sleigh, of the mistletoe.

And they gave thanks to the ones who came before,

Who left us this legacy to cherish and adore.

 

So here's to the historical society,

Who keep our past alive and free.

Merry Christmas to all, may your New year be bright,

From the Hist Soc. committee, everything's all right.

(Certainly, looks like we are watching history in the making. Note. ChatGPT chats in a Google developed font called “Roborto”)

In our archive, we do have several Christmas messages on the back of cards and one on the front (C1903).

For wintery snowy scenes, we have this C1990 Weston Turville WI card.

 


Quiz.

Q. Is Xmas a recently introduced abbreviation?

A. We know the term was used by George Woodward in 1753, But here in WT, in our archive we find it in use from 1907.



Request from “The Archive”:-


For those that missed the "Weston Turville Reservoir" talk. We have newspaper photographs of skating on the reservoir in 1947, but the copies we have are very low quality. Does anyone have better quality examples or other winter photographs/drawings/paintings of Weston Turville. (Other than Jamieson's reservoir skating painting)

We also know that in 1880 there was a cricket match held on the ice at the reservoir (but we don't know who won!)

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