Posted by Ed Kiser on March 10, 2006 at 20:03:50 from 205.188.117.66 user Kisered.
In Reply to: Beckfoot posted by John on March 10, 2006 at 17:26:08:
Water in Beckfood -
In PM, CH5, there is a bit of panic dashing about trying to get ready to receive the GA. It is suggested that some roses be collected and placed in several places in the GA's room, with some on the dressing-table and the mantlepiece and even some with the buiscuit tin by the bed. Nancy produced three vases to hold these roses. The concern about WATER came up, and Nancy says,
"Water in the bathroom," she said.
This non-sentence (no verb) has left me puzzled. It can have two meanings.
(1) It can be that she is stating a source of water, of where one can go to get water to put in the vases. This implies that MAYBE there is some water source here, from a pipe from somewhere: tank on roof, or pipe to a source far upstream, or from a hand pump attached to the pipe going down to an underground well. This is before the availability of electricity to run an electric pump to retrieve any water from an underground well. Instead of that electric pump, maybe there was a windmill to pump the water from the underground well up to that tank in the attic, but Ransome showed no sign of such a structure in his drawings. There is also the unreliability of that source as when having calm days and the windmill is not pumping.
(2)This "non-sentence" statement can be an observation of another chore needed to be done, that of making sure there is water in the bathroom. This might be the case if the bathroom is where there is a basin and a pitcher, and she is stating here that the pitcher needs to be filled. The furniture on which such a basin and pitcher stands traditionally was one with a marble top (to withstand spills from the basin), and doors to a storage area underneath where towels and washcloths and soap can be stored handy to the bathing process. Amazing to us in this modern age, but such a bathing stand was called a "commode" (from the Latin, COMMODUS, meaning "suitable or convenient." (reference our modern word, "accomodate" and you see the connection of that old meaning.) Today, the word "commode" is apt to suggest a toilet, WC, John, Crapper, Throne, whatever is the common vernacular for the device which of course Ransome would never have mentioned in his stories. For this reason, it is not clear if the "Bathroom" is for the taking of baths only, or was this room also for very personal more private activities as well.
Either way, a VERB would have been helpful, such as "There is water in the bathroom." (source) OR "Water is needed to be put into the bathroom." (go fill the pitcher.)
Getting water from the beck is questionable, considering they are downstream from the Farm where Jackie is. There is also the unreliability of that source during dry weather, as was shown in PP with the water level of the lower Amazon being quite low.
On the Tarboard some time ago, there was quite a discussion regarding the floor plan layout of Beckfoot, and the question of water source came up at that time. John Nichols and I really got into it trying to put it all together, among others chipping in their observations. Not saying here that we need to re-do this conversation/argument, but Beckfoot does continue to be a challenging mystery.
Ed Kiser, South Florida