Posted by Ed Kiser on June 03, 2006 at 19:39:06 from 64.12.116.6 user Kisered.
This is only slightly related to Ransome, but it does make use of SLATE (in an unusual way) and it involves a display in a Museum that is in Keswick, Cumbria, where the Lake District is, and we are all interested in those lakes as that is where "the Lake" is supposed to be that we have come to know and love in these Ransome stories.
http://www.visitcumbria.com/kes/kesart.htm
This musical instrument was made of SLATE, to be struck like a percussion instrument. It has some 4 octaves in it. It was created by some stone mason back in the late 1700's.
I never pictured Slater Bob as being any kind of musician.
This was made back when ROCK MUSIC took on an entirely different meaning from what it means today. It took several people play it, with each standing before his section of the slate plates. I suppose they could be called the first rock musicians.
Rock Music, as a concept, has certainly endured a semantic shift in meaning over time.
You might wonder, how did that chap in South Florida come up with this Keswick museum item...
I was listening on my car radio to PBS (Public Broadcasting System) and they were talking with someone about the first rock group, as being this set of slate banging musicians. Looked it up on the Net and, sure enough, there it was.
Amazing people, these English...
Ed Kiser, South Florida, until the 18th, then on to Kentucky...