Posted by Robert Hill on 08/07/00 from 129.11.153.35 via proxy proxy1.leeds.ac.uk:
In Reply to: Re: Picts and Martyrs Oddities posted by kate crosby on August 06, 2000 at 23:38:09:
#2 Housekeeping: In days somewhat longer ago than PM, when families a
few notches grander than the Blacketts had lots of servants, the chief
male servant in a household would be the butler, and the chief female
servant would be the housekeeper, who would manage the lesser female
servants. One book in which a housekeeper features prominently is
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (set about the same date as PM). If you
haven't read that yet, go out and buy a copy - don't waste time
finishing this message.
Somebody said there ought to be a housemaid at Beckfoot. In Swallowdale
there is one. She is mentioned just once, when Nancy reports to the
Swallows that the maid celebrated the GA's departure by dancing a jig.
In PM there is no housemaid and Nancy's recollection of the event is
(slightly implausibly) transferred from the housemaid to Cook. I
suggested a possible reason for this change a year or two ago on Tarboard.
#5 Fortnight: The French equivalent is "quinze jours", literally
fifteen days. A bit of one-upmanship? :-)
#8 "Frizzle" and "frazzle" both exist. They are probably both informal
variants of "fry", influenced by the sound of things frying, and carry
connotations of crispness or burning ("done to a frazzle").
#9 Qualitative analysis: I have argued previously on Tarboard that
there are a number of definite or probable inconsistencies in the series
regarding the children's ages, and that the idea of Dick having done
qualitative analysis at school is one.
On the other hand, I don't find it implausible that he knows a lot
about natural history (#18). It's part of the fondness for science that
he shows in all the books.
#13 Snail mail: In discussions of Sherlock Holmes I have heard it
mentioned more than once that in Victorian London there were (I think)
eleven postal deliveries a day. (Not too relevant to a rural area in
the 1930s but interesting anyway!)
#14 Words like beck, fell, tarn, scree are not common in the south of
England, let alone in Florida!
#17 I would guess that "two jumps of a weasel" is an ad-hoc Nancyism
based on the better-known "two shakes of a lamb's tail"; but maybe I'm
wrong, maybe it's standard in the area, or was at the time.
More later.