quigonejinn

Little-known fact only recently learned by literary historians: the dude's originally stood for "Cunning Sneaky Fucker."

And yeah. The thoroughgoing social background difference really, really, really make me want to write Smallbridge fic because really, Bush isn't going to fit in all that well either at the big house or in the sleepy little farming village.

I need to figure out more precisely what a "cottage" in the late 1700s means.

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"oh a cottage is always very snug"
(i think i've seen sense and sensibility one too many times)
"cottage" for the upper class probably isn't all that small.
*goes archaeological batshit over chichester pipe industry*
white ball clay pipes are part of the life-blood of chesapeake historical archaeology. two archaeologists went nucking-futz over them in the 60s and 70s and we've been forever doomed by their work. seriously, thought, you can date a site (roughly) from pipe stems. there's all sorts of weird and wacky was you can date sites, i myself have suffered through (highly amused, however) measuring the thicknesses of thousands of pot sherds from the late woodland period.
let me just put on my gonna-be-a-prof soon hat: pipes in the late 18th and early 19th centuries were not very wee. i have an older post of me ranting on some pbs drama about pipes with pictures of some. in the early 17th century pipe bowls were no more than 1.5 inches high and about 3/4 inch in diameter (roughly). tobacco then was much less dilluted. in the 18th century pipe bowls get larger as the bores of the stems get smaller. they can also get pretty schmanzy and you can track where they're made by the maker's marks, which is why i am totally crazy about this chichester pipe-making thing, histarchs from the chesapeake go nutz over this sort of thing. *takes off hat* i just wish i could get at the right books to go find of chichester makers marks.
it's a completely futile struggle to keep my profession from interfering with hornblower stuff *shakes head* i despair, i really do.

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I don't think I've told you recently that I love you, have I?

The cottage I was thinking of was the one in Chichester where Bush bunks when he's with the family. Goddamn this lack of time. -________-

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i just had this really amusing visual of midshipman bush opening a package from his mother and saying "aw, thanks mom"
that cottage is probably on the smallish side. how many sisters does that man have again? what i've always wonder is why the hell aren't they married? and i can just imagine him coming home and being completely overwhelmed by women.

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Yeah, why aren't any of them married? You might be able to argue the whole dowry thing, or the lack thereof, but that really doesn't hold a lot of seawater because while the convention, it wasn't the absolute. Poorer folk got married all the time.

Unless they were a family trying to keep up appearances and the burning shame of not bringing a dowry into the marriage sort of prevented the whole process.

Which makes me think of how far would Bush's burning shame extend. Is it Naval only? Or would he be consumed with it in terms of family matters because maybe he couldn't marry off the sisters (and lighten his own financial load) because he couldn't provide them with a portion to take into the marriage, etc.

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I bet that hundred pounds of prize money that he blew during RN Officers Gone Wild! Kingston Edition would have come in handy for that purpose.

And because I've been thinking about this all night: we don't hear about the sisters throughout the books, do we? I know we get the dab in LtH, and we get another bit somewhere, and Hornblower mutters about how Bush ought to have been able to retire to his doting sisters in Chichester, but it might be possible that Hornblower's info is out of date by the time of LH. Some of them might have gotten hitched.

Also: what if Bush had more than the four or whatever? That's an awful lot of siblings, but maybe some of them did get married off, and he just doesn't talk about them?

And finally: any chance that age issues could have come into play? We don't know where Bush stands, age-wise, in relation to the Mlles. Bush.

There's also the fact that he's never bloody home. Aside from the time that he's on halfpay on shore, he's not going to feel the press for money too badly -- it's not like he's grinding it out with them every day. He lives in a little bubble of tops'ls and heads'ls and salt beef and keeping crazy captain boyfriends happy while in the middle of the Atlantic. We don't get hide or hair or mention of them during all the time we spend in his head in LtH while we're at sea. We only hear about them when he's back on shore.

The notion, by the way, of Bush being home and trying to talking one of his sisters into getting hitched is HILARIOUS to me.

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These are all really good points. Yeah, the sisters aren't mentioned that often. I do remember that one bit in Commodore where Bush has the blood lust and wants to hang that poor bastard before he actually dies, and HH is all freaky about it. In that section somewhere HH says that Bush is a kind man, who is a good brother to his sisters and a good son to his mother. But outside of there and LtH I'm drawing a blank.

The age thing is interesting. For all we know he could be the youngest child in the whole load of them.

We don't get hide or hair or mention of them during all the time we spend in his head in LtH while we're at sea. We only hear about them when he's back on shore.

POINT. And if we would see it anywhere it should be in LtH. If you figure he left as a teenage boy and spends years and years and years away from home, these people have to be strangers to him. Easy to put them out of your mind I would imagine especially when there are better things to think about like beautiful ships and pretty captains.

And dude, I'm obsessed now with Chichester and I'm digging out all sorts of shit about the place including some period paintings of the main part of town. And I found some maps that ain't worth much because you can't read the streets but I'm hoarding it all.

But Chichester in the 18th century? SMUGGLING. All over the place.

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Fic about how close and cuddly Bush is with his land relatives always makes me go a little O.O

I think I've muttered about this to you before, but I just can't square it with what we know about how Bush spends his life at sea and the tidbits we get of his life with them -- even setting aside the fact that he's spent his adult life at sea, completely independent of them, there's the weeding the garden in the middle of fucking winter, the way he thinks that women doting on men as something to be taken for granted, and above all, that insane bit in LtH where he's lying in the hospital and is just rendered completely inarticulate by the fact that someone cares enough to come and visit him.

I mean, WTF. I know that HH makes Bush all prickly inside and out and that he makes little Valentine's day cards trimmed with oakum for him, really. If he's even vaguely close to his family, he's going to miss them while lying on his back, alone, bored brainless, and panicky about his future career. We don't get a hint of that in the bit where he's all blushy because Hornblower shows up with the fruitbasket. Similarly, when he's having his rage attack about his magnificent ship falling into Dago hands, the thought that his sisters/mother will hear of it -- that doesn't come into his head at all. Instead, he's wondering what the Navy and "England" would say.

So yeah. Bush and his relationship to money also fascinates me, as does the notion of how Hornblower perceives Bush's relation to his family.

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AAAAAHHHH!!! I just found a nice bit of stuff on the transporation between Chichester and Portsmouth including the specific Inns that were the coaching stops, the schedule and the costs.

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This whole Chichester thing is intriquing more than it should with all the crafts and trades in the place. This small pre-industrial blue collar town.

And really, clay pipe making? That's just too damn cool for word. I've found some period appropriate street maps of the place online but they are too damn small to make anything out. I smell a trip to the local uni to get better maps.

I've also googled Chichester and archeology and there seems to be reams and reams of stuff. A lot of it Roman and medieval as this town has a long, long history. But at least I know where to go -- which journals, etc. -- to try and find 18th century stuff.

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i'm not sure what the "chi" refers to, but "chester" comes from the roman word for either bridge or fort, can't remember which one.

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latin, dangit, latin not roman. romans didn't speak roman they spoke latin. i only had 4 years of classical archaeology, chalk it up to monday morning stupidity.

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