Posted by andyb on August 15, 2007 at 10:39:38 from 194.80.183.1 user beardbiter.
In Reply to: Re: nordic skating or anything but Beckfoot! posted by Peter H on August 14, 2007 at 21:10:56:
Peter, for what it's worth, I totally agree with you. I can't remember anything in the text or illustrations which might suggest that Beckfoot was built anytime but the 19th C. I am more interested in what might be called the sub-text, what people think these speculations tell us about the Turner/Blackett family, its history and the characters of its members.
Jock, whilst promoting the 'Hobbsian hypothesis', seems to follow a trail of inference from the position of Beckfoot on the map and Pull Wood House on the ground, to the Crossley family and the argument that the Blacketts are in some way ‘like’ the Crossleys in terms of wealth, hobbies and behaviour. Further, I have seen it suggested that as the Blacketts don’t seem to have the grand life-style we might associate with the super-rich Crossleys, the family must be in some sort of decline.
Neither of these inferences fits with my own image of the Turner/ Blacketts. It seems to me that AR treats them as belonging to that general class of people of ‘independent means’ that tend to populate novels of the period. He doesn’t present the family as being particularly wealthy, nor as struggling in reduced circumstances. The decline of the tennis court can as easily be attributed to a lack of people interested in playing tennis as to a lack of funds. Perhaps a more interesting question is why none of the children do seem interested in playing tennis. Don’t Bohemians play tennis?
There are other questions: does CF really have money problems or is this just a bit of fun on AR’s part? Who owns Beckfoot? What is the GA’s role in local society? But I’m supposed to be working so I’ll duck them for now.