Posted by Duncan on November 26, 2002 at 15:51:26 from 152.163.188.167 user Duncan.
In Reply to: Re: What does an entail entail? posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on November 26, 2002 at 12:36:35:
I simply don't buy the suggestion that the Blacketts own half the district. The fact is that Mrs. Tyson DOES have a strong say over where they camp, etc. Although farming families all know the Blacketts (by later books everybody knows the Swallows as well...) it is simply part of AR's semi-real, semi-idyllic rural community in which everybody knows and respects each other. At no point are the relations between any of characters presented as master/servant or landlord/tenant relations; the only exceptions I can think of to that rule are: the worrying silence of Bridget's nurse (but this probably has as much to do with writing dialogue for multiple characters without confusing matters - the only incident in the books where one suspects she must have spoken really is the party on the island in SA, but there were a LOT of people there and if you have them all speak it doesn't make the best reading)and the Great Aunt's manner with Cook - but this is, of course, presented as reprehensible.
The question of ownership doesn't rear its head as often as it might in the SA books - someone referred to the North Pole and Captain Flint mentioning that everything belongs to somebody. But I think it's stretching a point to read from that that there is an enormous Beckfoot estate that covers High Topps, Tyson's farm, Jacky's farm, Slater Bob's mine, Swainson's farm, Horse-shoe cove, Swallowdale... what, even Jacksons, Dixons and Wild Cat Island? Oh, and the Charcoal Burners? This is clearly far-fetched. Although there is every possibility that some of the farmers mentioned might be tenant farmers, there is no suggestion that they are the tenants of the family at Beckfoot.
Where does their money come from? Well, inherited money will no doubt make up much of it, the house probably had been in the family some time, Bob Blackett probably had a job and left some money (there's always a chance as somebody hinted that there was an industrial interest and they were living from revenue, although personally I think it's unlikely unless Captain Flint had other mines elsewhere?) and Captain Flint works, although we're not entirely sure what as (we are informed that it's 'quite a hard job'). The journalist possibility might be quite sound, especially when one takes into account the Ransome-ness of Captain Flint, and the articles and diaries in the SA 'treasure' and what the likely content of 'Mixed Moss' might have been.
There's no suggestion that Beckfoot is an especially large house (certainly not a stately home!) - it is a good-sized country house and its residents would certainly be well enough off, but I'm not sure you can guess any further than that from the text of any of the books.
Duncan