Re: Sanctuaries


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Posted by Peter Ceresole on April 09, 2008 at 06:04:59 from 80.176.146.133 user PeterC.

In Reply to: Sanctuaries posted by John Lambert on April 09, 2008 at 04:35:38:

The desire to have a private place seems to be a part of childhood.

I'm sure that's right. In fact, I'm sure that AR felt the lake and its surroundings were a sanctuary for him, and is one of the reasons that, in the beginning, he set his stories there. I think that he transmits that feeling strongly in the books.

In fact my favourite passage in any of the books is in PM, where Dot goes to sleep on their first night back at Beckfoot. PM, JC 1948, p.28. I've quoted this before so with apologies:

'Dorothea blew out her candle and settled herself in the midddle of the big spare-room bed. An owl called in the woods. "Not a barn owl, but a tawny," thought Dick, listening to the sharp "Gewick! Gewick!" as he fell asleep. A smell of new-mown hay drifted from the meadows on the further side of the river. "There isn't a lovelier place in all the world," thought Dorothea. London last night, and now Beckfoot. The summer holidays had begun.'

That's a love letter to a place, if ever I read one, full of the protective images of sanctuary.


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