American Edition

Book One
Et in Arcadia ego

Chapter Six

148 caravan
a group of travellers, possibly with both horses and camels

149 Kemal’s army
Mustapha Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938) had engineered the ejection of Greek forces from mainland Turkey (1921-1923), the abolition of the sultanate (1922) and the Caliphate (1924), and the foundation of the Turkish republic with himself as the first President (1923).

149 Aleppo
historic city in Syria, containing wonderful architecture from many periods

149 a rather tiresome Kurd
The Kurds are a proud people who have not been able to create their own nation and so find their lands divided between Turkey, Iran and Iraq. Why this particular one should follow Samgrass around is an intriguing question; there probably is a sexual connotation. Anyway, who took the photos of Samgrass if Sebastian was not there?

149 Pontus, Ephesus, Trebizond
Pontus was successively a Persian satrapate, an independent Kingdom and a Roman province in what is now north-eastern Turkey.
The city of Trebizond (Trabzon) lies within old Pontus. The city gained importance as an artistic, cultural, and commercial centre during the Middle Ages when it was the capital of the Trebizond Empire, which lasted from 1204 until it was conquered by the Ottoman Turkish sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror in 1461.
Ephesus was an ancient Greek city on the western coast of Asia Minor, now in Turkey. It was the site of the temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and later an important centre for early Christianity. Saint Paul addressed one of his letters to the Ephesians.
The order of the locations he mentions indicates Mr Samgrass’s unease - there is no logic to it.

149 Krak-des-Chevaliers
a marvellously well-preserved Crusaders’ fortress (modernised from about 1142) in Syria. Its Kurdish predecessor had first been given to Tancred Prince of Antioch (1072?-1112) and then handed over to the Knights Hospitaller, who built the present structure. The castle was never taken by siege; its fall to Sultan Baibars in 1271 was owing to trickery.

149 Samothrace
A Greek island (Samothraki) in the north-eastern Aegean Sea, it was the centre of an ancient cult. The famous statue known as ‘the Winged Victory’, now in the Louvre, was discovered there.

149 Batum
now Batumi, a popular health resort in Georgia and a place of ancient Greek settlement; Batumi is the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, which forms part of the republic of Georgia. The process of complete integration into Georgia appears to be under way (2007). Batumi has become an important oil-exporting city.

150 Beirut
capital city of the Lebanon

150 Constantinople
ancient city, until a year before the time of these events capital of the Ottoman Empire. Its name was not changed to Istanbul until 1930.

150 Cook’s
the famous British travel agency

152 Île St-Louis
one of the two islands in the River Seine in the centre of Paris

152 Louvre
the famous art museum in Paris which contains many masterpieces and also many dreary pictures in French public style

152 Picabia
Francis Picabia (1879-1953), popular French avant-garde artist of Cuban-Spanish descent. He painted in almost every major contemporary style and was one of the first Dadaists. Charles seems to feel that he has facility rather than genius, though since then some critics have praised his refusal to be bound by consistency as a comment on the destructive values of conventional art.

152 Vogue
Popular magazine aimed at the wealthier classes advising them on fashion, life-style and in-places

152 Delacroix
Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863), a French painter whose paintings exemplified 19th-century Romanticism. His work emphasises colour and movement.

152 “Great bosh.”
i.e. worthless rubbish. EW was something of an artist himself, mainly in drawing and design. (He did six line drawings for his first novel Decline and Fall.) He did however come early to think that modern art was on a wrong course. Picasso was a particular bête noire for him.

152 snubs to her
an expression of derisive dismissal, meaning, I understand, something similar to Nuts to her! in American usage.

152 potin
‘row’ (French)

155 Druses
adherents of a religion which is an offshoot of Islam, found mainly in the Lebanon and Syria. The Druse hold, with Islam, that the Qur’an is sacred, but have other religious texts. They believe in a single God and recognize seven major prophets, including Adam, Abraham, and Jesus. They differ strongly from Islam in believing in the transmigration of the soul : at death, one’s soul is instantaneously reborn into another life until eventually it unites with the Cosmic Mind or God's Will. They believe heaven and hell to be spiritual in nature.

155 patriarchs
A bishop who is called the patriarch heads many of the old Christian churches of the East. The orthodox churches have nine patriarchs and the Eastern Catholics have seven. The Archbishop of Constantinople is the Ecumenical Patriarch, i.e. senior in honour in the Orthodox churches.

155 icons
holy paintings of Christ, the Virgin Mary or saints; they are characteristic of the East and are painted on wooden panels. EW spelt the word eikons in the first edition of BR.

155 romanesque
a title applied to architecture erected in Europe between the time of the ancient world and that of the Gothic developments beginning in the twelfth century. It was often based on circular forms and so had rounded arches, semi-circular apses and barrel vaults as common features.

155 Maronites
Christian Arab members of an oriental church in communion with the Pope but with their own distinctive regulations and liturgy. They were originally a group of Christians who gathered around the hermit Maron near Antioch in Syria in about 400. They now live mainly in the Lebanon, and their leader is the Patriarch of Antioch.

155 The Diary of a Nobody
Amusing account of the life and bumbling misadventures of a lower middle class clerk and his family in late Victorian London, written by George Grossmith (1847-1912) and illustrated by his brother Weedon (1854-1919). It was first published in serial form in Punch in 1888-9. EW spent the Christmas of 1946 collating the book (an extended version published in 1892) with the serial.

156 Tinkerbell
The horse is obviously named after the fairy in Peter Pan by Sir James Barrie (1860-1937). The play was first performed in 1904 and had already reached a peak of popularity.

156 dipsomaniac
a now dated term for a person with an uncontrollable craving for alcohol

157 Military Governor at Rhodes
From 1912 to 1943 Rhodes was under Italian rule, so the Governor would have been an Italian.

158 Tokatlian
An hotel at Constantinople

158 Piraeus
the port of Athens, lying some 6 miles (10 Km) from the capital

158 Alexandria
the ancient city in Egypt, originally founded by Alexander the Great

158 Mediterranean Fleet
As a great naval power at that period, Britain maintained several fleets. One of them, the Mediterranean Fleet, was based at Gibraltar, Malta and Alexandria.

159 fib
a childish word for a lie. Its childishness perhaps conceals a harder truth : Sebastian is already using lies to get his way in a form of behaviour which is habitual to an alcoholic.

160 Grand Tour
Charles is sarcastically comparing Mr Samgrass’s recent confused journeyings with the lengthy and purposeful residences in centres of civilisation undertaken by British gentlemen from the 17th to the 19th centuries.

161 the Peke
i.e. the pekinese dog, Julia’s pet

162 Kenya
Then part of the British Empire, Kenya (pronounced ‘Keen-ya’ in 1923/4) had a high plateau which was tolerably fertile and possessed a climate similar to Europe’s. It was an area where many farmers from Britain, often wealthy and well-born, settled.

162 monomaniac
a person obsessed with a single idea, here hunting

162 Notre Dame
the great cathedral of Paris on the Île de la Cité, almost overlooking the Île St-Louis

163 drawing the home woods
a hunting term meaning that the hounds are following the scent into the wood

164 Postmaster-General
the government minister charged with overseeing the direction of the Post Office and its associated functions. It was thought in politics to be a sign of failure not to be given a less humdrum job.

164 antediluvian
dating from before Noah’s flood, and so ancient-seeming

165 Zürich
a city in Switzerland, already noted as a centre of psychoanalysis. Borethus is a fictional name.

166 spiffing
childish slang for ‘superb’

166 Captain Morvin’s Riding Academy
I have not been able to find out anything about this outfit. It may be based on the Academy run by Captain J.H. Hance near Madresfield Court, Malvern, where EW learned to ride, though I have no reason for saying so other than my suspicion that Morvin is a childish corruption of Malvern.
This Captain Hance is mentioned in the Memories of Sir Maurice Bowra. He came across him when he was being trained in World War I to ride a horse and become an officer in the Royal Field Artillery. Hance treated his charges like fools and did not hesitate to use extreme language. (He seems to have done the same in civilian life later.) For example, he shouted at one unfortunate horseman, You’re not a cadet. You’re an old Piccadilly prostitute on a night-commode!

168 The Times
the London daily newspaper of great repute then and for a long time after

170 Frenchified
It seems that the nuns at Cordelia’s convent school were French and taught a handwriting style which they had learned at school. A French person’s handwriting is even now very different from an English person’s.

170 sneaked
here means purloined or just borrowed

170 awful row
Cordelia’s language is very schoolgirlish.

170 there goes a packet
Rex Mottram thinks he has wasted a large amount of money.

170 concierge
A distinctively French character, usually a woman, she acts as caretaker to a block of apartments and is always ensconced by the main door. She sometimes lives in the building too.

171 Travellers’
a club. Gambling is a central activity here.

171 Ciro’s
an expensive restaurant intended for customers from high society. The original Ciro’s had been created at Monte Carlo when James Gordon Bennett, the heir to the founder of the New York Herald, grew angry at slow service at his favourite restaurant there, bought it, and renamed it as Ciro’s. Today there are many Ciro’s all over the world, though none in Paris (as far as I know).

171 Paillard’s
Paillard’s was one of leading restaurants of Paris, so Rex’s ignorance of it may be considered a little surprising. The restaurant was created in 1880 when M. Paillard took over this establishment situated at the corner of the Rue de la Chaussée-d’Antin and the Boulevard des Capucines from the Bignon brothers. According to Larousse Gastronomique, ‘Favourite dishes were chicken Archduke, Georgette potatoes, calves’ sweetbreads with asparagus tips, fillets of sole Chauchat and, above all, stuffed duck, rivalling the duck au sang of the Tour d’Argent.’
The culinary term paillard is of course named after the famous chef, who trained under the great Escoffier himself. It is a thin slice of veal (or now, any meat) pounded even thinner until it is translucent and then grilled or fried for a few seconds only.

171 oseille
sorrel

171 caneton à la presse
duckling served with a sauce prepared from its own pressed juices. Usually the duck is placed in the duck press after its breast meat has been removed for cooking. It was EW’s wife Laura’s favourite dish; they ate it in Paris on the evening of their wedding day.

171 caviare aux blinis
caviar served with Russian pancakes

172 1906 Montrachet ... Clos de Bère of 1904
excellent wines from Burgundy. Clos de Bère should read Clos de Bèze. Montrachet is a Grand Cru white wine of intense flavour and loveliness; Clos de Bèze a superb red from the commune of Gevrey-Chambertin.

172 exchange
i.e., the exchange rate of French francs to the pound. The French franc was not stabilised until 1926.

172 apaches
members of the criminal class of Paris often thought to dominate bars and similar places. In origin they were unemployed and disaffected youngsters who then developed links with the underworld.

173 “‘It doesn’t matter what people call you unless they call you pigeon pie and eat you up.’”
This is a proverb from Charles’s childhood : his nanny or his mother might have used it to him when he was in a temper and using strong language. It has a similar meaning to ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.’

174 peg out
i.e. die

175 Pathetic Fallacy
This is the name given to the propensity of human beings to attribute emotions or human characteristics to inanimate objects. It is rarely done for rational reasons and so is very suspect in many eyes.

176 we don’t take much account of Catholics in Canada
It is a remarkable indication of Rex’s insensitivity even to his own country’s character that he can so discount half the population! Clearly his acquaintanceship is only with English-speaking Canadians.

176 ‘promises’
Non-Catholics planning to marry Catholics were generally required to promise solemnly to honour their future spouse’s religious practices and to bring their children up as Catholics.

176 Bratt’s
The name recalls Pratt’s, a gentleman’s club of some repute in London, but the club is actually modelled on White’s, one of EW’s clubs. It appears in several of his novels.

176 North Gridley
In Britain there is no such parliamentary constituency. Indeed there is mercifully no such town as Gridley.

176 Rent Restrictions
The laws regulating landlords and rents were under discussion in this period. The Labour Party (in government for ten months in 1924) had as a concern the easing of restrictions on tenants though it had no time to do anything about it.

176 the other thing
i.e. sex

177 St. Margaret’s, Westminster
the chapel of the Houses of Parliament and so a place in which Rex, as a Member of Parliament, would be expected to get married. Catholics would not normally go to services there.

177 Monte Carlo
a district of the principality of Monaco on the Mediterranean coast. It has the Casino and the Opera House.

178 Continental Daily Mail
The Daily Mail was a respected London newspaper of Conservative views. At that time it published a Continental edition printed on thinner paper which was available in Paris late on the day of publication.

178 Savoy Chapel
Julia later explains to Charles how sordid the whole affair had been. She points out that the Savoy Chapel was ‘the place where divorced couples got married in those days - a poky little place’.
The Chapel in fact has an interesting history. Savoy is today a province of France but in the Middle Ages was a more-or-less independent dukedom. King Henry III of England married Anne of Savoy and so began the Anglo-Saxon involvement with the word Savoy. Her uncle Peter of Savoy built a palace in London which contained the original Savoy Chapel; both were destroyed in the Peasants’ Revolt (1381). On its site Henry VII started to build the Savoy Hospital for homeless people in the last years of the fifteenth century; it was not completed until 1512. It was huge, with a nave 200 feet long designed to hold a hundred beds. All that now remains of that great endeavour (dissolved in the Reformation) is the side chapel we call the Savoy Chapel, though the hotel and the theatre which were later built on the site were also named Savoy.
The Chapel is in fact in the private possession of the monarch, and has been since 1937 the official chapel of the Royal Victorian Order. The fact that the chaplain is answerable only to the monarch and not to the church authorities allowed divorced people to book it for remarriage.