BENCHMARKS continued
Any time benchmark-hunters gather together to chew the
fat, to talk about the ones they got, and the ones that got away,
sooner or later the conversation will get around to the question of
who was the very first benchmark-hunter, the original of our species,
the progenitor of us all. Many - fired with more enthusiasm than is
probably wise - will plump for Benchmarker himself; while others will
claim that there was a guy up North who was involved a good wee bit
earlier. Yet others will say it all kicked off in the United States
of America. For a long, long time it was impossible to peacefully
reconcile these conflicting opinions and it lead, on some occasions,
to a point where it seemed that the movement would split or even
disintegrate entirely.
Now at last the differing factions can put away their
fanatical arguments, their unconscious biases, their febrile passions
for someone or other, because in recent times incontrovertible
documentary evidence has been unearthed which the anthropologists and
historians all agree narrows down the date on which the very first
benchmark-hunter explored and recorded the mapped world. And from where he
(or possibly even she) most probably originated. The evidence is
contained in the earliest known photograph ever of a benchmark, which
was discovered recently by M.C. when, in an attempt to link his family
tree all the way back to King Solomon, he happened upon it on the Man
on Bridge website where it had been posted at some stage by a
person unknown.
An examination by The
Institute for Advanced Benchmark Hunting, at its laboratory in
Ballivor, of the couture of the couple in the picture has confirmed
that it dates all the way back to the 1940/50s.
And as the photographer featured on the Man on Bridge
site - Arthur Fields - is not known to have ever been active outside
the centre of Dublin City; and as the 'mark in the photo has been
proven to be the one on Saint Patrick's Bridge in Cork City, it is
reasonable to conclude that the photo was not taken by Mister Fields,
but most likely by some other photographer who was based in that
southern city. For now at least, the identity of that particular
benchmark-hunter (the daddy, or maybe mammy, of us all) is not known. But what is
known is that the evidence revealed by the photo rules out of
contention for the title of who was the first benchmark-hunter, all
those other Johnny-come-latelys that have been the subject of all
those fractious disputes that have plagued our noble movement up to
now. And that is most welcome indeed.
(P.S. Believe it or believe it not, this is perhaps the first and only 'mark from Cork City or County that has been posted yet on this site.)
In tribute to the first ever benchmark-hunter, whose
identity remains unknown, this site asks all currently active
hunters - at a time that is convenient for them - to take a
photographic record of this 'mark (on Saint Patrick's Bridge in Cork
City) while striving to get an image that reflects the composition of
the original photo i.e. by including two people in the photograph who
are framing the 'mark. All such photo submissions, however late they are received, will be posted here
on this post, NUMBER 1,001.
Below: The first ever photographic record of a
benchmark.
