Posted by Robert Hill on 08/15/00 from 129.11.153.35 via proxy proxy1.leeds.ac.uk:
In Reply to: Re: Picts and Martyrs - oddities index posted by Bruce A Clarke on August 15, 2000 at 07:32:33:
I don't think it at all likely that Beckfoot had electric light.
Anyone know of any textual references that decide it definitely?
If they'd had it downstairs they'd have had it upstairs too, and if
they'd had it upstairs they'd have used it in preference to candles
despite the minor inconvenience of having to get out of bed to turn
the light out. Last weekend I was visiting friends and slept in a room
without a bedside light, but I wouldn't have dreamt of using a candle,
even if one had been to hand.
In any case, other arrangements were sometimes used in those days.
For example, the main light in a bedroom might have a second control
point, a pear switch suspended over the pillow by flex from the ceiling.
I had not heard that there was any general belief in Britain or Europe,
even as an "old wives' tale", that nice houses are those which have
had good people living in them; though I can imagine that someone like
Dorothea, or more especially Titty, might speculate on such a point.
There is of course the opposite idea, that houses where something
dreadful has happened can be haunted, or even if not exactly haunted
can have a disconcerting atmosphere.