Posted by Adam Quinan on August 21, 2007 at 14:23:19 from 192.75.48.150 user Adam.
In Reply to: Re: Is it all worth it? (was 'Toff' ruled out (was Amazons Toffs? posted by Peter H on August 20, 2007 at 22:36:30:
I am quite happy with the local farmers calling the local gentry's children Miss Nancy or Miss Peggy without there necessarily being an economic reason. In those days people of the working classes were deferential (at least to their faces) to those of the upper and middle classes. In return, Nancy would have said Mr Dixon or Mrs Jackson as politeness worked both ways.
My take on the Blackett/Turner family is that while they may have been landowners taking in rent, but they may equally have been successful in trade in Victorian times and lived off the proceeds of a father or grandfather's fortune.
I also think that Captain Flint was more than just a dilettante traveller and amateur prospector, I suspect he was paid by some company to prospect and he may also have paid some of his way in life through writing articles for newspapers without necessarily being a salaried journalist. The book came later but as a follow-on not a completely new venture.