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trennels2006-01-25 05:30 pm
childeproof.livejournal.com) wrote in trennels2006-01-25 05:30 pm
Entry tags:
two minor queries
Re-reading the beginning of Attic Term and two things struck me for the umpteenth time. And now that I have somewhere to niggle, quibble and poke...
One was that the Marlows and Merricks always have dinner in the middle of the day, or at least a meal which is referred to as dinner and which is clearly fairly substantial (involving in Nicola's case gammon and salad, followed by damson pudding, all wheeled in by Doris). In fact, midday dinner becomes a minor plot point in, I think, Run Away Home when the indefatigable Mrs Bertie, presumably weary of continually putting up sandwiches for various Marlows, says she plans to ask Mrs Marlow if they can have dinner in the evening instead.
Now, while I grew up on midday dinner as a working-class child in 1970s Ireland, I wondered about the (a) the logic and (b) the class issues surrounding midday dinner in the (admittedly sliding) timescale of the Marlow novels. Midday dinner, as distinct from midday 'lunch' and an evening dinner, has always been a working class arrangement for me, or, I gather, a regional designation for any kind of midday meal in some places. (But, I thought northern, so not Trennels, then.) Also, while I see the logic of active outdoor workers like Rowan having a substantial midday meal for energy purposes, but it seems deeply inconvenient for all at Trennels in the school holidays...? And while I am capable of appreciating the various factors that contributed to the moving around of the dinner-hour in the 18th and 19thc - fashion, snobbery, daylight vs artificial light etc - I realise I know much less about the moving about of mealtimes in the latter half of the 20thc.
Are the Marlows representative of their time and class in their meal times? (What do they eat at night and what do they call it? Am only recalling the much more informal meals, like the late-night omelettes of Run Away Home, and speaking of which - I've always been intrigued by the sweet and rum omelettes, of which I have never previously heard. My partner claims Forest must mean crepes or pancakes, but I say that if she says omelettes, that's what she means...)
Second question, which is actually just that, as I know little or nothing of hunting:
At the post-cubbing Merrick breakfast table at the beginning of Attic Term, Mr Merrick is unobtrusively defending Nicola against the mild-but-not-all-that-pleasant jibes of Patrick and Ginty about her riding skills. When Nicola retorts to some remark about a hunting fall she had the previous season by saying to Patrick 'And you jumped on me, near's no matter', Mr Merrick's eyebrows 'commented unfavourably on this breach of hunting etiquette.'
Now, is the actual 'breach of hunting etiquette' the fact that Patrick almost jumped on the fallen Nicola, or the fact that one or both of them has breached hunting manners by dragging up old scores from the previous year which should be put to bed politely by now?
One was that the Marlows and Merricks always have dinner in the middle of the day, or at least a meal which is referred to as dinner and which is clearly fairly substantial (involving in Nicola's case gammon and salad, followed by damson pudding, all wheeled in by Doris). In fact, midday dinner becomes a minor plot point in, I think, Run Away Home when the indefatigable Mrs Bertie, presumably weary of continually putting up sandwiches for various Marlows, says she plans to ask Mrs Marlow if they can have dinner in the evening instead.
Now, while I grew up on midday dinner as a working-class child in 1970s Ireland, I wondered about the (a) the logic and (b) the class issues surrounding midday dinner in the (admittedly sliding) timescale of the Marlow novels. Midday dinner, as distinct from midday 'lunch' and an evening dinner, has always been a working class arrangement for me, or, I gather, a regional designation for any kind of midday meal in some places. (But, I thought northern, so not Trennels, then.) Also, while I see the logic of active outdoor workers like Rowan having a substantial midday meal for energy purposes, but it seems deeply inconvenient for all at Trennels in the school holidays...? And while I am capable of appreciating the various factors that contributed to the moving around of the dinner-hour in the 18th and 19thc - fashion, snobbery, daylight vs artificial light etc - I realise I know much less about the moving about of mealtimes in the latter half of the 20thc.
Are the Marlows representative of their time and class in their meal times? (What do they eat at night and what do they call it? Am only recalling the much more informal meals, like the late-night omelettes of Run Away Home, and speaking of which - I've always been intrigued by the sweet and rum omelettes, of which I have never previously heard. My partner claims Forest must mean crepes or pancakes, but I say that if she says omelettes, that's what she means...)
Second question, which is actually just that, as I know little or nothing of hunting:
At the post-cubbing Merrick breakfast table at the beginning of Attic Term, Mr Merrick is unobtrusively defending Nicola against the mild-but-not-all-that-pleasant jibes of Patrick and Ginty about her riding skills. When Nicola retorts to some remark about a hunting fall she had the previous season by saying to Patrick 'And you jumped on me, near's no matter', Mr Merrick's eyebrows 'commented unfavourably on this breach of hunting etiquette.'
Now, is the actual 'breach of hunting etiquette' the fact that Patrick almost jumped on the fallen Nicola, or the fact that one or both of them has breached hunting manners by dragging up old scores from the previous year which should be put to bed politely by now?
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(Anonymous) 2006-01-27 05:39 pm (UTC)(link)Patrick's corpse?
Re: Patrick's corpse?
"Never ever let your gun
Pointed be at anyone
That unloaded it may be
Matters not the least to me".
At least two actors I can name - Brandon Bruce Lee and Mr Campbell of the Queen's Theatre Manchester - have died because a prop gun which was supposed to be unloaded wasn't, and although Peter had no reason to suspect either that his initial check was flawed or that the gun had been reloaded since he made it basic good practice ought to have suggested discharging it into empty air a few times before using it on that occasion. The problem was, of course, that they didn't plan to use the gun at all, and Patrick was so "in character" that he practically willed the bullet into existence.
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And, presumably, in an activity where riders all attempt to move in the same direction at speed, there are ample opportunities for even hunters not obsessed with role-playing fantasies with the winsome neighbouring blonde bombshell, to jump on people entirely accidentally...? That really was why I wondered whether 'hunting etiquette' didn't refer to some odd notion about not mentioning other people coming a cropper.
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Lunch or dinner
1) Mrs Bertie and Doris were there during the day but not in the evening (cf Run Away Home, where Giles shows off making omelettes), so if they were going to do the cooking, it was more convenient to eat at lunchtime.
2) Those still at boarding-school would have had their main meal then, for similar reasons.
3) Even if they hadn't had Mrs B and Doris to cook for them, they might well have eaten at lunchtime as with nobody coming home in the evening to demand a meal after a hard day at the office, it got the cooking over and done with! I know my mother preferred to cook for my father at lunchtime and have a lighter supper ("I'm not doing potatoes twice in one day!") so that she didn't have to sweat over a hot stove when she was tired. At that, she still does.....
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Oh! I've just remembered that in Nancy's own words, while U-adults have lunch in the middle of the day, U-children and U-dogs have dinner, which might explain why Mrs Bertie is looking for the change to take place.
From memory, Noblesse Oblige says: "U-speakers eat luncheon in the middle of the day and dinner in the evening. Non-U speakers (also U-children and U-dogs) have their dinner in the middle of the day."
The Marlows are fairly clearly upper-middle, which might explain the (somewhat anachronistic) change.
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Yes, they are omelettes, not crepes or pancakes. There's a range of recipes, but in essence you add sugar and flavouring like rum to the yolks, whisk up the whites and fold the yolk mixture in, then fry the lot in butter as for a savoury pancake. Alternatively make a normal pancake (but no salt/pepper or herbs!) and put a dollop of jam in when part-cooked, where you might normally add cheese, ham etc.
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Hunting etiquette
"If a rider has fallen before or after a jump, the rest of the mounted field should wait until the fallen rider is up and out of harms way."
Mr Merrick was angry that Patrick hadn't waited for Nick to move out of the way.