Re: CHAT: Ballar(r)at

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