Posted by Robert Dilley on September 22, 2003 at 13:37:21 from 216.211.5.77 user rdilley.
In Reply to: Re: Pubs, Inns etc posted by Adam Quinan on September 22, 2003 at 11:25:36:
If I can drag TarBoarders back from their boozy reminiscences, the original question was along the lines of "why so many mentions of pubs in the Broads books compared with the Lakes books?"
River settings vs Fells settings is certainly one reason. I suggest also that the Broads books have much more interaction with the adult ("Native") world, where they are considerably more in the foreground than in the Lakes books (other than the Great-Aunt, who I cannot envisage in a pub under any circumstances).
NB: despite the alcoholic haze in which he clearly went about, John's recollection of his student geography is quite correct: there is a major branch of the subject called Location Theory that deals with the spacing of settlements (among other things). Although its patron saint, the German geographer Walter Christaller, did not base his theory on pubs, I used an example for years in class based on the spacing of the British village through access to daily essentials such as the village general store, the primary school, and the pub. Alas, all three have gone from most British villages today.
NB2: There has been quite a lot of writing on the geography of wine (we are even contemplating offering a course on it at my university) but virtually nothing on the geography of beer. Any student looking for a good thesis topic? The field-work should be very challenging....