Posted by Peter H on May 09, 2003 at 16:21:46 from 81.131.214.148 user Peter_H.
In Reply to: Timothy's Age posted by RichardG on May 09, 2003 at 15:32:09:
A composite posting, as these seem to be the fashion . . .
Oscar Gnosspelius was born in 1878. So in 1929, when AR wrote in his diary ‘Oscar Gnosspelius has found copper on [Coniston] Old Man’, OG would have been 51. I see Squashy Hat as a lot younger than that.
By the way, a useful source of info on people in AR’s world is the Appendix to Signalling from Mars. I also checked with Christina Hardyment’s book, and was reminded that Squashy was a man after my own heart ‘He’d rather walk than sail’ said Nancy
Christina has also something to say on the ID of the locomotive in PP, which has exercised some of us recently: a fairly average steam engine. One way of avoiding the problem!
As to Barbara Collingwood being ‘Nancy’, Christina’s daughter Daisy sums it up very well, I think: Nancy is still a bit of a muddle . . .Is she Taqui or is she Barbara Collingwood or is she Georgina Rawdon-Smith? There seem to be too many people like her.
And finally, another AmerEnglish problem. Could one of you kind folks explain what a ‘redneck’ is? I’ll have a stab – it sounds like someone out in the sun a lot, a rural type – perhaps what in the UK we might call a ‘yokel’?