[Vwoolf] Fw: Fancy not knowing that!

Mon Apr 5 16:45:43 EDT 2021

For a little extra local colour on Pirate buses, see one of Vivien Eliot’s unpublished (until now) pieces of fiction, titled ‘Bridge’:

               ‘I like best the pirate buses: they are a penny cheaper,’ said the German well pleased and unctuous. The party shrieked. The German looked surprised, then sullen and puzzled.

               ‘I never dare ride in them,’ said Felice, ‘the drivers seem so wild and reckless, they drive so badly.’

               ‘Then you ought to ride in them, to help them get experienced,’ said André.

from Ann Pasternak Slater: The Fall of a Sparrow: Vivien Eliot’s Life and Writings (Faber & Faber, 2020, p. 603)

Stephen

From: Vwoolf <vwoolf-bounces+sbarkway=btinternet.com at lists.osu.edu> On Behalf Of Stuart N. Clarke via Vwoolf
Sent: 05 April 2021 17:43
To: vwoolf at lists.osu.edu
Subject: [Vwoolf] Fw: Fancy not knowing that!

Vara’s brought my attention to this article:

https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://londonist.com/london/transport/londons-pirate-buses__;!!KGKeukY!mQOsnaOvmCmPQ9C37N74TWu6vAY8_OPeP2wLqMk2q1LpYezA1RH8Jol8gZ8EB9sLpk0$  <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/londonist.com/london/transport/londons-pirate-buses__;!!KGKeukY!nkFdJmmBCfmKNAqdtzR2Kcpyw9-OesdXBf5cWkmp-LqqrTY9TU_OCxaGA_cHxJ4Khng$> 

Now, the first (non-advert) picture you see is of a London General in Trafalgar Sq.  If Elizabeth had *not* taken a pirate, she might have taken this one, as the 38 went along Victoria Street (I think).  Here’s the real thing in Trafalgar Sq:

The article is biased against the pirates.  How capitalist do you want to be?  Are you in favo(u)r of competition?  Do you want public transport nationalised?  

Here’s a more balanced assessment about when Arthur George Partridge started Chocolate Express bus routes:

Stuart

From: Stuart N. Clarke via Vwoolf 

Sent: Monday, April 5, 2021 5:18 PM

To: Jeremy Hawthorn ; vwoolf 

Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] Fancy not knowing that!

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

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 <mailto: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)

_______________________________________________
Vwoolf mailing list
Vwoolf at lists.osu.edu <mailto:Vwoolf at lists.osu.edu> 
https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf

  _____  

_______________________________________________
Vwoolf mailing list
Vwoolf at lists.osu.edu <mailto:Vwoolf at lists.osu.edu> 
https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf

_______________________________________________
Vwoolf mailing list
Vwoolf at lists.osu.edu <mailto:Vwoolf at lists.osu.edu> 
https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf

  _____  

_______________________________________________
Vwoolf mailing list
Vwoolf at lists.osu.edu <mailto:Vwoolf at lists.osu.edu> 
https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf

  _____  

_______________________________________________
Vwoolf mailing list
Vwoolf at lists.osu.edu <mailto:Vwoolf at lists.osu.edu> 
https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osu.edu/pipermail/vwoolf/attachments/20210405/c6da0fd3/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 140678 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.osu.edu/pipermail/vwoolf/attachments/20210405/c6da0fd3/attachment-0001.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 68963 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.osu.edu/pipermail/vwoolf/attachments/20210405/c6da0fd3/attachment-0002.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image003.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 115096 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.osu.edu/pipermail/vwoolf/attachments/20210405/c6da0fd3/attachment-0003.jpg>