Posted by Jeremy Kriewaldt on July 26, 1999 at 17:04:40 from bdw.netcomuk.co.uk:
In Reply to: Re: The Mysterious Life of the Blacketts posted by Robert Hill on July 13, 1999 at 15:45:34:
I have always tended to Robert's view that Beckfoot was the Turner house.
The whole Matterhorn story in SD (Jim and Molly Turner being "rescued" by Bob Blackett) becomes most problematic if the Turners do not live in the district. Beckfoot is the only house mentioned on the west side of the lake (most convenient for a dash to the Matterhorn)and if the Turner house had been on the other side of the lake the escape would probably not have been across the lake but to High Greenland. Further, if the Turner house had been other than Beckfoot, I suspect that it would have been pointed out as "where Mother and Uncle Jim lived as children".
On the social status of the Turner family - note the deference that Col Joly exhibits towards Captain Flint (and the GA's attitude towards him). Also it is noteworthy that the Turner/Blackett family speak in "standard English", while the other inhabitants of the district tend to speak in Northern dialect (the Walkers and Callums come from the south). The visiting by the GA seems to tie in with this - the Turners were clearly drawn as local squires.
As for the wealth of the Blackett/Turner family, additional evidence includes the redecoration of Beckfoot in PM, the ability of Captain Flint to take Mrs Blackett on a cruise at short notice for the sake of her health, the keeping of a cruiser and Captain Flint's generosity in giving Nancy and Peggy a boat (it is not clear who paid for Scarab, but Swallow always belonged to the Jacksons). Note also that Captain Flint was able to buy Wild Cat (although it is ony in PD and ML, and hence is fictional, there is no indication that this is a "big lie" - James Turner could buy a schooner if he wanted to). Also, mining expeditions do not come cheap.
The problem with this analysis is that if Beckfoot belonged to the Turner family, why did it devolve to Molly Blackett rather than Captain Flint? I suspect that the issue is linked to the adventures that James Turner had as a young man that became the subject of Mixed Moss by a Rolling Stone. I seem to recall that Captain Flint is described somewhere as a black sheep of the family. This may explain why he did not inherit the family property - if the GA's brother was even half as starchy as his sister, James's adventures may well have justified his being relegated in the will. An alternative, of course, is that Beckfoot belongs to Captain Flint, but he has no use for it (except to house his library and scientific and mining equipment) and he allowed Molly to occupy it while he was discovering the world and preferred to live in the houseboat once he "settled down".