CHAT: Ballar(r)at

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".

--
John Cowan  jcowan@reutershealth.com  www.reutershealth.com  www.ccil.org/~cowan
The known is finite, the unknown infinite; intellectually we stand
on an islet in the midst of an illimitable ocean of inexplicability.
Our business in every generation is to reclaim a little more land,
to add something to the extent and the solidity of our possessions.
        --Thomas Henry Huxley

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