[Vwoolf] Fancy not knowing that!

Mon Apr 5 14:54:46 EDT 2021

Dear Stuart and Jeremy,

I’ll nudge my way into this conversation to say that when I annotated the Harcourt edition of The Years I spent considerable time both at the London Transport Museum archive/library and elsewhere (including a Colorado Springs carriage museum that had both landau replicas and hackney cabs) researching the history of omnibus and bus transport. I learned at that time about the Pirate omnibuses, the shields, the stair guards, etc. as well as all of the innovations following the early knifeboard seating on the top of the open omnibuses. At one point I gave a Woolf conference paper on the history of omnibus travel with specific reference to Mrs. Dalloway and The Years though Night and Day should also figure in such a discussion. This is all to say that I’m only too aware of how recondite many of Woolf’s images are to those of us in the U.S. and perhaps elsewhere.

Best,
Eleanor
Dr. Eleanor McNees
Professor & Interim Director of Graduate Studies
Department of English and Literary Arts
University of Denver
Denver, CO 80208
eleanor.mcnees at du.edu (Eleanor McNees)

From: Vwoolf <vwoolf-bounces+emcnees=du.edu at lists.osu.edu> on behalf of Stuart N. Clarke via Vwoolf <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>
Date: Monday, April 5, 2021 at 10:18 AM
To: Jeremy Hawthorn <jeremy.hawthorn at ntnu.no>, vwoolf <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [Vwoolf] Fancy not knowing that!
[External Email From]: vwoolf-bounces+emcnees=du.edu at lists.osu.edu

I have to admit that I thought the same about pirate buses.  One of our VWSGB Members told me.  Now I’ve discovered lots of info.  Below is the most famous: the “Chocolate Express”.

Here’s an example of something I didn’t know I didn’t know until I found out I didn’t know a few years ago:  what’s a street scavenger?  They pop up in T. S. Eliot’s ‘A Cooking Egg’ (1920): ‘The red-eyed scavengers are creeping | From Kentish Town and Golder’s Green’.  They are also mentioned in “The Years” and “Jacob’s Room”.

Answer: persons ‘whose employment is to clean streets, by scraping or sweeping together and removing dirt’ (OED).

Stuart

[DSC07322]

From: Jeremy Hawthorn via Vwoolf
Sent: Monday, April 5, 2021 4:48 PM
To: vwoolf
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] Fancy not knowing that!

It's a good example of what for many might be an unknown unknown: those unfamiliar with cricket might well assume that the nets are for tennis. (Another unknown unknown for me was the pirate bus in Mrs Dalloway - which before you contextualised it, Stuart, I thought was just a bit of romancing on Elizabeth's part. Annotators, I agree, need to be alert to the possibility of such ignorance.) The things we know we don't know can always be looked up; the things we don't know we don't know remain unresearched.

J
On 05.04.2021 17:23, Stuart N. Clarke via Vwoolf wrote:

It was intended as a gentle tease of foreigners outwith the Empire – but also an implied criticism of annotated editions that don’t explain what readers might need to know.

Stuart

From: Jeremy Hawthorn via Vwoolf
Sent: Monday, April 5, 2021 4:10 PM
To: vwoolf at lists.osu.edu
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] Fancy not knowing that!

I suspect you of playing "tease the foreigner" Stuart! I had a memory that when in Hollywood, Sir Cedric Hardwicke expected all expatriot Brits to turn up for net practice for the local cricket team, but could not find this on line. But I did find this, from around the time of The Waves:

"The headmaster of High Wycombe Royal Grammar School, Mr. E.R.Tucker, in an effort to stimulate the interest of parents in school affairs, has arranged cricket practice at the nets for fathers once a week."

Evening Post, Wednesday August 14, 1935

On 05.04.2021 16:40, Stuart N. Clarke via Vwoolf wrote:
When the boys are at school in “The Waves”, Louis “said”:

“We are parting, some to tea; some to the nets ...”

Alles klar?

Stuart
(Day 384)

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