Posted by Peter Ceresole on March 01, 2012 at 12:49:17 user PeterC.
In Reply to: Re: Beckfoot Lighting posted by Robert Hill on March 01, 2012 at 08:28:45:
In WH chapter 18, Roger (despite still not being allowed to use matches a year and a half after S&A) lights a candle in a candlestick in the bedroom he shares with John at Holly Howe.
Well done; that's a clincher. It's candles and oil lamps. Makes perfect sense for the time and place. And it's most likely that the oil lamps are simple wick and glass rather than pressure and mantle. When Mrs Blackett comes up through the wood she's probably carrying a hurricane lamp.
Most of us live in a time and place that's drenched with light at night, so we forget what it was like even a few decades ago.