Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
I have to say that Tey, as with Wodehouse and cricket and golf, made me interested in a subject about which I know and care nothing at all.
Ultimately, I wasn't swayed by the attempt to make Brat a moral person. And I'm glad you mentioned Loding, since this is another area where Tey pulled her punch, I think. It's impossible to believe that anyone but Alec could have had the knowledge to coach Brat. A woman who emigrated to Canada? Faugh! They must have know, on some level, that it was Alec. But again, they preferred to smooth things over, ignore the issues, and save face.
Well, as a by-blow, Brat wasn't entitled to the Ashby name, but I suspect he'd have it changed, sigh. But you raise a point that occurred to me - just how would the Ashbys have reacted if it turned out that Brat wasn't a relative, but the offspring of some "slattern" and just happened to have a resemblance? I'm thinking the love wouldn't have been there.
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Loved that "Faugh".
Yes, Tey seemed to have been very willing to cut Brat some moral slack. Would it have been because he was the product of centuries of breeding? I don't think that it was a coincidence that the Ashbys seem to be centered on horse breeding. Tey hints at that, with the Ledinghams next door having failed, and only the long grey line of Ashbys carrying on in their squire-ly way. Why else would she have written "Bee hoped that it would go on sheltering Ashbys for centuries to come"? Note, Tey left her estate to the National Trust.
I found it very odd that Brat, brought up in a foundling's institution and living as an adult in the fo'c'sle and in bunkhouses, was able to fit so seamlessly into the Ashby household, as if to the manor born. I think Tey was saying that breeding is crucial in people as well as in horses and dogs.