Posted by Katharine Edgar on August 13, 2003 at 16:30:02 from 81.96.140.67 user Katharine.
I've just been re-reading Swallows and Amazons and have been wondering about something that bothered me when I first read the stories as a child: does Mrs Walker's tent design, with stones instead of tent pegs, really work?
We know from the storm episode that they don't stand up to high winds ('Roger crawled out into the rain. "It's getting smaller and smaller," he said. "It's spilling the stones out of the pockets."' - and then the ridge rope snaps.) however I'm a bit surprised they lasted as many nights as they did. When we used to attempt makeshift tent-making in the garden using beanpoles, bedspreads etc we used to find it took an awful lot of bricks to hold the bedspread out taut enough to make a really convincing tent. It only took a slight knock against the walls of the tent to move the bricks out of place. Does anyone know if this is a design that was really used in tent making or was it something that Ransome dreamed up? Has anyone ever slept in a tent of this design?