Underscores instead of names

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by skb

I can remember seeing a similar thing in Jane Austen: _shire (or similar, it's been a while).

Perhaps they didn't believe in making up names, so just put in blanks?

Yes, I remember that too. Although she did name some places (like towns visited on a trip) I recall that she referred to the ____shire Militia. I wondered why she didn't just make up a name if she didn't want to use the name of a real-life militia.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

Yes, I remember that too. Although she did name some places (like towns visited on a trip) I recall that she referred to the ____shire Militia. I wondered why she didn't just make up a name if she didn't want to use the name of a real-life militia.

In the old days Shire was a word associated with "county" as I understand it. There were a good number of shire's in England alone. Perhaps the author wanted to add local color without being tied down to a particular area. That would give the fictional story a bit more reality. And if a person living in an actual shire i.e. Deveonshire for example had a name similar to a fictional character they may (depending on how the character is presented) have sued for libel as well.