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Re: CHAT: Ballar(r)at

From:Tristan McLeay <zsau@...>
Date:Sunday, October 5, 2003, 8:18
On Sun, 5 Oct 2003, John Cowan wrote:

> Tristan McLeay scripsit: > > > Every Victorian should know this from their excursion to > > Sovereign Hill (a place in Ballarat^WBallarrat (to use the spelling they > > used then) designed to be like Ballarrat of the Gold Rush era. Prices > > there are all in pounds of two dollars).) > > Eh? Every Sherlockian and Holmesian knows that McCarthy's dying reference > to "a rat" was actually to "Black Jack of Ballarat", and Holmes (who > spent his leisure time spelling out V.R.I. on his mantel with bullet holes) > actually demonstrates this to Watson by writing out "Ballarat" and covering > up the first four letters. He couldn't have done that if the canonical > spelling, at least in England, had been "Ballarrat".
'They' referred both to space and time. People from Ballarat at that time generally spelt Ballarat as <Ballarrat>, or so I was told by my Grade 5 teacher and various people at Sovereign Hill. Maybe they were just trying to make an excuse for the typo in the film they had, I dunno :) -- Tristan <kesuari@...> Yesterday I was a dog. Today I'm a dog. Tomorrow I'll probably still be a dog. Sigh! There's so little hope for advancement. -- Snoopy