Posted by Duncan on June 22, 2001 at 15:12:54 from 152.163.204.53:
In Reply to: Re: Fictional Locations posted by andy bolger on June 15, 2001 at 21:30:21:
Sorry, I know people don't really want to carry on these debates, but I've always been fascinated with the locations. Clearly they are fictional or hybrids, but I think they actually become more so (the Lake District ones, that is) as the books continue - I actually (perhaps controversially) think that in Swallows and Amazons, the Lake was mostly Windermere, and a lot more Coniston popped over to join in during Swallowdale (to join the harbour, etc.)
Reasons for thinking this? The day AR began S&A (sorry for the abbreviations!) he sailed to Storrs Hotel and had tea, overlooking Ramp Holme (formerly called Roger Island) and, beyond it, the 'islands off Rio' and the 'great hills' around the head of the lake. In Swallows and Amazons, references to the southern end of the lake are always to the effect of it being a long way away, with the steamers still having a long journey to the Lakeside pier, south of the island (there's some sort of reference to there being at least as much lake south of WCI as north of Rio, but I'd need to look back to find a page reference or whatever) - indeed the island is quite clearly located as two SA-miles south of Rio - if we're talking real miles that puts us a bit south of Ramp Holme (more like Storrs Hotel) but many miles north of Blake Holme). The voyage to the island is actually quite quickly and easily carried out. Much longer is the voyage from Beckfoot to the islands off Rio. While I can't place a perfect Beckfoot in the 'right place' on Windermere and the usual suggestions for the Amazon River and the Octopus Lagoon are reasonably convincing, the OS Map method (thoroughly employed by myself as a child) does a reasonable job on a 'squashed' Windermere with perhaps less Coniston imports than is often suggested. It is further to swim from WCI to the shore than to swim around the island - not true of Peel Island or Blake Holme.
Anyway, as people will say (with much to recommend their points) it's fiction, and the places don't really matter. But I was up at Windermere the other day, and it still has the magic for me (as does Coniston) - and I looked out from the Troutbeck Youth Hostel across the lake and could see the steep wooded sides and fancied that somewhere in there was the Dog's Home, and down beneath there might be a Beckfoot - a fine old house like Belle Grange, perhaps - the boat house of which I could see in the woods, with no skull and crossbones but it would have faded by now... Sorry, I'm off again, but really those questions are part of the mystery of the books and help to imbue their lasting charm.