Posted by John Wilson on June 24, 2000 at 16:51:05 from wn-d216.actrix.co.nz:
In Reply to: Re: Blackett & Turner families posted by Allan Lang on June 17, 2000 at 06:35:53:
Jim and Timothy were looking for gold in South America just before PP. In PM Timothy mentions their run in with the police in Peru, and in PP (ch 35) Jim mentions Pernambuco (Brazil), so they certainly got around South America!
In ML (ch 16) we learn something of Jim’s earlier life when he says that he chucked Oxford before it chucked him, and went off to see the world instead. Missee Lee went to Cambridge, and the only good thing at Oxford is the marmalade. He tells her that he has only been locked up once, for fancying policemens’ helmets on Boat Race night when Oxford won. But he said he did not “low for Oxford”, so where did he get the rowing cups in his study? After the burglary in PM the cups that Jim won rowing are not taken by the burglars.
Jim’s travels are alluded to in descriptions of his study (SD,PP), the houseboat (SA,WH) and the stolen trunk (SA). Mostly as a passenger with a trunk? But somewhere (SA?) he tells Roger that being a ship’s boy is a hard job! In SD (ch 7) he mentions being in a ship’s gig off the coast of Java. In ML (ch 17) he has seen a high bridge like the one between the islands in the Himalayas. In WH, he comes home from abroad to see the lake frozen over.