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View Full Version : What does it mean to be "at York" ?


sciencefan
02-08-2007, 12:27 PM
Chapter 20 (http://www.online-literature.com/austen/prideprejudice/20/)
"Charlotte's reply was spared by the entrance of Jane and Elizabeth.

``Aye, there she comes,'' continued Mrs. Bennet, ``looking as unconcerned as may be,
and caring no more for us than if we were at York, provided she can have her own way."

This place must have a significant meaning to a Britisher, but I'm afraid this American can only conjecture that she makes some allusion to a financially rich environment.

Can anybody shed some light on this subject?
sciencefan
03-04-2007, 04:17 PM
No one responded to my question,
so I applied somewhere else for an answer.
I thought I would post it here for future reference.


"At this time, the city of York was several days' journey away from Meryton so Mrs Bennet is saying - in her own inimitable fashion - that, for Lizzy, the family might as well be on another planet for all the lack of consideration she is showing them in not marrying Mr Collins."


It doesn't have anything to do with money.
It was just a distant city which the ignorant Mrs. Bennett had heard of because it used to be the capital before London.
Blackjack Davy
04-06-2007, 07:05 PM
Yes, except that it's never been the capital. It's simply a far away place that Mrs B has only heard of and never been to. It's like saying they may as well all have been in Timbuctoo, or Never Never land for all the consideration shown them by Lizzie. (sic.)
sciencefan
04-07-2007, 08:52 AM
"York was the capital city of the country before London..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/York
Seeing that this is a wiki, of course, it could be wrong.
Answers.com says something similar.

20 minutes later...
It seems their language is a bit too vague and masks the truth of it.

You are quite right.
I stand corrected.

York was a capital, but not of England.

"In 71 A.D. York was the Roman provincial capital. Constantine was proclaimed emperor at the undercroft of the York Minister in 300 A.D. When Rome fell, York became the capital of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria."
http://www.road-school.com/york.htm

(I quoted this source not because of their authority, but rather for their conciseness in describing the history. I have verified it with several other authoritative sources.)