Divining the Distant Past: W.G. Hoskins and Pre-Roman Exeter

The historian of Devon
W.G. Hoskins (1908-1992) was the great historian of the English landscape and author of a history of Devon, published in 1954 (hence this sixtieth-anniversary lecture) and frequently reissued, most recently in 2011.  He was born in Exeter, founded the Exeter Civic Society, was President of the Devonshire Association, received an honorary degree from the University (1974), famously quarrelled with the city council about the planning of the city centre, and in general was one of the most prominent citizens Exeter ever had.

How old is Exeter?
The subject of the lecture is Hoskins’ surprising change of mind about the origin of his native city.   In his 1954 Devon history he accepted the archaeologists’  view that Exeter was created by the Romans, but only a few years later in Two Thousand Years in Exeter (published in 1960, updated edition 2004) he was sure it was much older than that – hence the challenging title of the book – and that Geoffrey of Monmouth’s story that the city was besieged during the Roman conquest of AD 43 was actually historical.   So the lecture will also discuss the general question of how historians try to use myth and legend, as for instance with King Arthur or the Trojan War.

The lecture series
W. F. Jackson Knight (1895-1964), Virgilian scholar and spiritualist, taught in the Exeter Classics Department from 1935 to 1961.   His Penguin translation of Virgil’s Aeneid sold about half a million copies and stayed in print for over forty years.   He was a wonderfully inspiring teacher, and when he died the Jackson Knight Memorial Lecture fund was raised jointly by the students in the Department and by his friends and colleagues, to perpetuate the memory of his work and ideas, and to establish lectures ‘on topics connected with Latin and Greek literature, its influences on modern literature, classical anthropology, and ancient thought in all its aspects’.  As the founders intended, over the years the lecturers have included not only classical scholars but also poets (one of them later Poet Laureate), novelists, literary critics, and even a sculptor (Michael Ayrton’s ‘End Maze III’ can be seen in Queen’s Building, where the Classics Department used to be housed).   Now, fifty years after JK’s death, this thirtieth lecture will bring the series to a close.