This week, we finally managed to install our new (not new ) item of furniture - a mid-18th Century grandfather clock. It's not bright and shiny like more modern ones, but a dark oak with a warm patina which the beeswax polish is drawing out. In order to set it up, we had to do a certain amount of research - how to hang the pendulum, where the weight went on the endless chain - and it got me thinking... where and when did certain divisions of time come from? The time periods which I have written either had household clocks or didn't, I have not written novels from the time of their invention. Clocks have been around for a long time, and the obsession with measuring time in an ordered fashion dates back to at least the ancient Sumerians. It was they who established a circular reading of time and, I imagine, the sixty seconds/minutes came about as much because it was an easy way to divide a circle as anything else. But it wasn't until much later that the precision of seconds ...
A couple of years ago, I wrote a blog post about Writing from Artefacts about a box of historical objects I received as a gift. Each month of 2024, I hope to build on this and introduce you to some of the artefacts I've gathered over the years. These are all things which have been - at least in part - inspirations for me, and I hope they will give you a few extra ideas along the way for your own writings...
The old organ in Thomaskirche
It's probably unsurprising that I'm starting with musical instruments, since music is my day job! There tends to be music in all my stories, and there is something very special about connecting to the music of the past. When I went on my German adventure in 2013, it was very special to visit Thomaskirche in Leipzig, where Bach was the Director of Music for more than quarter of a century.
Here are three of my own little musical treasures...
Music is something which is here to stay - its forward-facing legacy at least as long as its past. Whatever you are writing, whatever time or whatever place, music would always be a part of life. It is wonderful to be able to hold and study instuments made in traditional ways and with traditional crafts.
I have no idea what the age of these drums are, but they are made in a traditional style, using hollowed wood and animal skins. I would love to know more about where they came from and who made them, but there is no clue that I can find about either thing.
I got this bugle from a local auction. It is a military instrument, probably from WWI. Not being a wind musician at all, I can't get a note out of it, but Judith (our resident trumpeter) managed to play The Last Post on it. It was a very strange thing to hear that music on an instrument which - in all likelihood - had not played it for a century. Every dent on here has its own story, and I love imagining what that story might be.
Delving a little further back in time, this drum dates from the turn of the 20th Century. Again, it came from a local auction but from a different house clearance. This is a marching drum, still carrying its original (as far as I can tell!) skin on one side, although this is now torn, while the other side has been fitted with a synthetic skin.
Caithness held many Mafeking Night celebrations and - judging by the age and style of this drum - this could easily be a part of those celebrations.
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