Posted by Peter Hyland on September 14, 2013 at 12:18:00 user Peter_H.
In Reply to: Re: Water and Empire: Examination Paper posted by Peter Ceresole on September 13, 2013 at 21:49:02:
"would have given them a pretty 'Blackett' life style"
Well not in one very important respect - important, that is, to AR devotees. The Collingwoods owned no boats. The boats (the 1st 'Swallow' and 'Jamrach') which the Collingwoods sailed belonged to the Holts and were let free with the house. Later, the 2nd 'Swallow' and 'Mavis' were purchased for Dora's children by Ernest Altounyan (and maybe AR would not have been inspired to write the books if he hadn't seen the Altounyan children sailing).
By contrast, the fictitious Blacketts not only owned their house, but also 'Amazon' and the Beckfoot launch. And the Collingwoods were academic and artistic and the Blacketts were not. In fact, the more I think about it, I cannot think of more differing families than the Collingwoods and the Blacketts, the former apparently penniless and the latter comfortably well off. (Except that there were two lively daughters in both.)