“The members of the Exeter Camera Club were entertained this week with a lecture by Mr A.O. Rowden on Baghdad and Babylon. It was illustrated by over two hundred slides from photographs taken by the lecturer while on military service in Mesopotamia. Briefly outlining the early history of Babylon, Mr Rowden showed how ancient history can be made to live again as one gazes upon the ruined hall of Belshazzar, at the dais where stood the throne of Darius, or at the shattered supports of the Hanging Gardens, once counted among the wonders of the world. In spite of all that has been done, the greater part of the city still awaits the spade of the excavator. 'Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place for jackals, without inhabitant,' prophesied Jeremiah of old, and the lecturer could not help calling the prophecy to mind as he saw a solitary jackal slink away among the ruins.

The second part of the lecture portrayed Baghdad of today, with its cosmopolitan multicoloured life. Highly interesting were the pictures of native trades -- the carpenter at his bench, the weaver weaving his intricate patterns with his primitive loom in the open air, the barber, and the omnipresent beggar by the wayside. There were religious processions, Christian and Mohameddan. In thanking Mr Rowden for his lecture, it was remarked that he was generous to the extreme in lavishing on one lecture materials that would have served most lecturers for three.”