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