Reappearing

The dissertation is finally done, so normal service can resume – if I can remember how.

I’ve enjoyed it, mostly, and it was interesting to be immersed in Georgian life, but I’ll be glad to be able to think about things other than libraries again!

The thing I’ve found most interesting, though, hasn’t been any particular content – it’s just been the experience of using original sources. I have seen and read other things written in the time period – Collingwood’s letter to Trinity House in Newcastle being particularly memorable – but there’s something about seeing 200 year old workings – odd notes, and pencilled figures that weren’t rubbed out once they were written in ink, and the places where they started to write in the minutes that they had agreed something and then didn’t agree it after all – that I just found fascinating.