Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Sir Thomas Smith talk at Comber Historical Society

Last night I was at Comber Historical Society, telling the story of Sir Thomas Smith's forgotten colony of 1572-1575. There were just over 30 people in the audience, and even though the room was very warm, and the Spanish class in the adjacent room was noisy, it went well. 15 copies of the booklet were snapped up, nobody complained or heckled, and I renewed contact with some local people that I hadn't seen in a while. Just before heading out to Comber, I did a wee bit of revision on Smith's story and found this online reference to him which will tickle my Northern Ireland readers - "...he was a man of very uncommon qualities and attainments; an excellent philosopher, physician, chymist, mathematician, astronomer, linguist, historian, orator and architect; and what is better than them all, a man of virtue, and a good protestant..." (!) This is quoted from The Baronetage of England Volume II by William Betham, 1802 (p 300). See here on Googlebooks.

• Summary of the Smith booklet

• Summary of the booklet launch event back in May

• Comber Historical Society website

0 comments: