Date: Thu, 19 Sep 1996 07:57:54 -0500
From: Jim McCulloch mcculloch[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MAIL.UTEXAS.EDU
Subject: Re: country seat
At 08:37 pm 9/19/96 EST, you wrote:
Help please.
I was just contacted by someone researching Thoreau and Walden. He asked
about the meaning of "country seat" in chapter 2, wondering whether
that meant "outhouse." I don't have anything here at home at this hour
to help me out.
Is this is Vol I of DARE? Or, does anyone have a ref for "country seat"?
Is it a pun?
Thanks,
Beth Simon (8:45 in Indiana, where we don't change our clocks, so
I don't know if this is est, cst, or cdt).
A country seat is a country house, normally owned by someone wealthy enough
to also have a city house. Hence, when Thoreau speaks of his country seat,
he is referring ironically to the implication of magnificence as the phrase
was used in contemporary literature.
--Jim McCulloch