Posted by wdmtgts on January 10, 2019 at 13:24:55 user wdmtgts.
In Reply to: Re: Miss Lee and Latin posted by Robin Selby on January 10, 2019 at 10:51:48:
Perhaps Gleat Marlow school served Oxford marmalade at breakfast? A headmaster at some point might have been an Oxford man - but no, that wouldn't work, given Miss Lee's affection for her school and antipathy to Oxford. I see in the school history that the William Borlase was day-only from 1928 to 1967 - when do we think Miss Lee went there? - but I agree that AR was not unready to play fast and loose with odd details in case of need, and also that the particular affectionate emphasis on Great Marlow is hard to explain except as a covert nod to a friend. But Miss Lee's affection for her school is central to the plot, and so the school must have had a name during the writing, even if changed during printing re Walpole. I'd been toying with the idea of a Great something-else school which AR altered, but lack the time for proper research.
Meanwhile, I agree with Magnus about AR's propensity for back-up research 'when he thought it important', and he may well have had schools for Susan/Titty and the As in mind but gives no clues in the books. Was it AR who said once that it was important for the writer to know one thing about a character that the reader doesn't know (and doesn't need to know)? Their schools may have fallen into this category. I wonder, incidentally, to which school Molly Blackett went? We may never know.......
Post a followup (Only if you agree to the Terms and Conditions)