Posted by Duncan on April 16, 2012 at 04:17:46 user Duncan.
In Reply to: Re: Gaol / jail posted by Robert Hill on April 16, 2012 at 03:17:45:
True - but a lot of time and effort was put into correcting proofs, etc. And generally a writer will "have a view" about the "correct" spelling (I think I'm right in saying in both cases either spelling is acceptable?)
When we debated "gaol" and "jail" over at the Facebook group (in a different context) the general feeling was that "gaol" was confusing for children, although I doubt that would have been uppermost in AR's thoughts. It could simply be the change in normal usage - "gaol" is an older form and it might be that Jonathan Cape adopted a new policy on the spelling by the time of GN (you see "amongst" and "amidst", "firstly" and all sorts of words vanish through the 20th century (sadly in some cases).
Another possibility is that Dorothea is "romancing" when she refers to "gaolers" and therefore AR might have decided to use the antiquated form.
Of course, I agree that he may just have written it differently each time and, as both are acceptable, both were left when the proofs were corrected. I think that's more likely between, say, SA and GN rather than PM and GN which were written relatively close to one another.