Posted by Peter H on September 28, 2007 at 18:11:47 from 86.130.134.206 user Peter_H.
In Reply to: Re: Swallow - an existentialist speaks posted by Prue Eckett on September 27, 2007 at 01:03:41:
The more you go into the boat ownership situation, the more puzzling it gets. In Chapter II of PP, Peggy tells Titty and Roger that they will all be camping in the garden - 'only till your mother comes to Holly Howe. You won't have Swallow till then . .. '
Why won't they have Swallow? This must have been because the Jacksons couldn't be expected to take full responsibility for the Swallows being afloat on the lake in a small craft belonging to the farm, but of course their mother could, when she arrived. OK, but who accepted responsibility for the Ds sailing in Scarab in PM? Their parents were not there, and neither was Mrs Blackett, who otherwise might have agreed with Prof and Mrs Callum to take responsibility for them, particularly if Scarab was kept at Beckfoot. The Great Aunt might have been considered a responsible adult, but her visit was unplanned, she knew nothing about boats and she did not know the Ds existed. Perhaps the Ds' age was the factor here - they were older than Titty and Roger and also PM is a year later. But they were still children, away from home with no parent or guardian with them. Speculators (and law students) might like to imagine the legal tangle if Dick had done something extraordinarily negligent in Scarab, she had capsized, and the G.A. had suffered a severe injury.