I do have a 1998 paperback of
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (in other words, the US edition), but without knowing where to look for, it's rather more difficult to do a comprehensive search in a paper book than in an ebook.
Spot-checking about twenty random pages throughout the book didn't show me a single instance of leg-stretching, though, while several characters on those randomly picked pages were described as going for a walk or walking, for what it's worth.
I also have a PDF of
The Sorcerer's Stone from well before the legal ebook days (yes, I bought all the ebooks as soon as they were available on Pottermore, but I also had all the PDFs as they were handier when writing or betaing fanfic) - no idea about the year (definitely a pre-2007 edition), but again, only that same single instance of Vernon Dursley deciding to stretch his legs.
There
are about half a dozen of other instances of the word "stretch" being used - mostly when someone stretches out a hand, or stretches in bed / on the grass / while lying down - but even with those, it doesn't come to "several dozen" (plus, well, it's not a particularly unusual word and should be allowed to be used a few times in a book in various contexts).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze
However, your argument about the editor being at fault for a repeated cliche doesn't seem terribly practical. Virtually every writer has been edited, yet we tend to talk about a book's defects in terms of the writer alone.
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That's true to an extent - and I do believe there's a limit to how much of a writer's style and choice of words the editing process should change. However, repeated clichés (and other similar issues of accidental repetition) are, I think, one of the things that
should need to be pointed out during the editing process.
Obviously it might (perhaps even often) be the case that they are pointed out but the author prefers to keep them anyway. I've yet to come across anyone who'd prefer to keep a repeated cliché after having it pointed out, though, unless it serves some specific purpose (repetitions can be used on purpose and with great effect sometimes and are a valid style tool - but I don't think "stretching his legs" would really fall under that).
In the end, of course it's the author's decisions and choices, but in particular for a first-time author and for something like repeated cliché phrasing... Well. The editing process (mostly copy editing in this case, I suppose) is there for a reason. I rather doubt there's
any author producing an entire book of "perfect" prose - style, grammar, syntax, spelling - completely on her or his own, so I'm never quite happy about having some (heavily-edited) authors praised on their technical writing skills while others are criticised just because they had less luck with the editing.