BECKSTONE – Seeds for the Plot
‘There is much to be said on both sides.’
So said Sir Roger de Coverley, a wonderful fictional character created by Joseph Addison. Sir Roger had just been asked his opinion on which side of an inn sign was better. Ever since reading this tale I have been addicted to Inn Signs – and to elegant 18th century essays.
In an earlier blog I talk about The Mulberry Duck and the centuries old trade in Aylesbury ducks. We lived for a while in a Doomsday book village on the Herts-Bucks-Beds border. Our house was built on an old ‘prune’ orchard and the street was called Gooseacre, which, of course, I had to research.
Seeds which work – and seeds which don’t
These were the very first seeds of BECKSTONE, even providing the first working title, The Mulberry Duck. That referred to a running joke through the story which has survived – just. Eventually I ditched the ducks , then the title, replacing it with Paper Marriage. That went too. Too many others had used it. But I homed in on Addison’s period and set my story in 1712.
By then he and his partner, Richard Steele, had already established the first version of The Spectator. This had replaced their first magazine, The Tatler, both publications founded ‘to temper morality with wit and wit with morality’. The Spectator appeared six days a week for 555 editions, an impressive output. It also reflected a fascinating time in history.
At the time Tories and Whigs were jostling for power. The outcome of their tussle would determine whether the Continental wars, triggered by the wars of the Spanish Succession, would continue or be truncated. As a Member of Parliament, Addison knew all the details, although he allowed very little of the seamy side of politics to leach into his elegant stories. Or not overtly.
When seeds take root
Steele and Addison collaborated under the pseudonym ‘Mr Spectator’. This came from their creation, the ‘Spectator Club’, which met in fictional coffee-houses peopled with representative characters aping the various classes, categories and professions who used the real coffee-houses. These were carefully crafted to reflect major elements in society, the Army, Politics, Trade or Town and so on. They were mouthpiece which reflected and assessed affairs and biases of the day, rendering political affairs familiar to the general public. Sir Roger was the typical country squire. In this way The Spectator became the precursor of the modern novel. What better precedent could I find?