Re: Beckfoot& the idle rich


[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ Previous # Next ] [ Start New Thread ] [ TarBoard ]

Posted by andy bolger on November 21, 2002 at 22:37:07 from 213.122.246.228 user beardbiter.

In Reply to: Re: Beckfoot posted by laurence_Monkhouse on November 21, 2002 at 22:19:24:

Well Mrs Blackett lived in large house by the lake, didn't work and had a servant, so I suppose you could call her both "idle" and relatively speaking "rich". I wouldn't have cared to call her this to her face though.
The boring answer to who owns Beckfoot is that the ramifications didn't strike AR until after he had written S&A and having found himself in a hole he wisely decided not to dig.
Entering into the spirit of Tarboard and asserting that of course all the characters were "real" the answer could lie in J T being the "black sheep of the family"; perhaps the inheritance was divided with Molly having the house and Jim other sources of income which he squandered hence his need to embark on various wild geese chases.
A number of industrialists built themselves big houses in the Lakes during the 19C Beckfoot sounds more like a fairly modest version of one of these rather than a traditional farm or manor house.
I don't think the Blackett's ability to negotiate camping proves anything much except that they had local contacts and could be rather persuasive neither of which would rely on them owning large tracts of land. Opening a mine? native business surely, who knows what wheeling and dealing was involved.


Follow Ups:



Post a Followup

Name:
Eel-Mail:

Existing subject (please edit appropriately) :

Comments:

Optional Link URL:
Link Title:
Optional Image URL:

post direct to TarBoard test post first

Before posting it is necessary to be a registered user.


[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ TarBoard ]

Courtesy of Environmental Science, Lancaster

space