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Portraying |
WILLIAMSBURG--The wiry squire with the long coat, tri-cornered hat and ponytail didn't address the crowd while he set up his surveyor's tripod under a sprawling oak.
But once that was in place, along with some maps hung on a rope behind him, the 18th-century surveyor spoke to the onlookers who'd taken up seats on a nearby shaded hillside.
"Oh, you must be here about the ad I recently placed in the newspaper," said the gentleman who introduced himself as Robert Lucas, the surveyor for York County. "Several of you must be desirous of purchasing my services."
When one in the modern-day crowd tittered a bit at his accent, a mix of Colonial phrases and British tones, he whirled around to give her a steely look.
"I'm not sure all of you are deserving of my full attention," he said, breaking a slight smile. "Pray thee, I will, however, attempt to explain to the rest of you the way that most precious of resources, land, can be acquired here and now, in the 18th century."
For the next 60 minutes, William Balderson, manager of character interpretation at Colonial Williamsburg, had a crowd of several dozen following his words like dutiful students with a favorite teacher.
Talking to the crowd as if it had just stepped off Duke of Gloucester Street in Colonial days, Balderson explained how surveyors had come to be such important people in the Colonies.
Covering the way land was given to those with enough money, slaves or passages paid to the New World, Balderson provided insights into the importance of men who put westward expansion on the books.
He even managed to teach a few onlookers the basics of surveying, if not the considerable math involved.
The only time the costumed character veered from the importance of surveyors was to toss a zinger or two to onlookers.
When one woman fails to understand surveying basics, even with Balderson's help, he finally shakes his head and suggests, "Perhaps you should consider a career in a different discipline, madam."
A few minutes later, back in modern clothes and in his office atop a period Colonial building, Balderson says a touch of humor works to break the ice.
"But a little goes a long way," said Balderson, who grew up in Richmond County in the Northern Neck. "We don't want to compromise the historic setting or the character."
I visited Colonial Williamsburg last week after Balderson, a high school friend, called to weigh in on the whole question of what constitutes the Northern Neck.
A history and journalism major at VCU, it was no surprise that Balderson favored the historic, land-grant definition of the Northern Neck--from the Chesapeake Bay to the headwaters of the Rappahannock and Potomac rivers.
He even demonstrated that, showing me the region designated on several maps in a recently opened exhibit, "Degrees of Latitude: Mapping Colonial America" at the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum in Williamsburg.
Balderson, who owned a company that provided costumed historic characters before joining Colonial Williamsburg in 1997, said making characters real and accurate to visitors is critical to the Williamsburg experience.
"When this happens, we present for our visitors not people living in a town, but a living town of people," he wrote in a recent primer for interpreters.
Balderson, who can switch characters with an ease brought through decades of practice, enjoys keeping his hand in, playing the surveyor several times a week.
He pointed to his performance for the group on the hillside.
"When you hear them asking questions, not about the way it was back then, but the way it is now, in the 1800s, you've succeeded," said my high school pal. "They're experiencing history in a whole new way."
For more information, call 800/HISTORY or go online to colonial williamsburg.com.
To reach ROB HEDELT: 540/374-5415 rhedelt@freelancestar.com
