Request/Two General HP-Related Questions...

[dfrankis at dial.pipex.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 22007

Ebony wrote:
> Hey, list...
> 
> As some of you know, I made it safely to the UK last weekend and 
have 
> been enjoying it here ever since.  I always loved reading about 
> England, but never had even the slightest desire to visit until 
last 
> summer.  I'm enjoying myself more than I have on any other summer 
> vacation thus far in my life!

Welcome to England
> 
> QUESTIONS
> 
> Two quick questions that I've thought of in my first week here:
> 
> 1)  Is the Hogwarts Express the only way that kids get to 
Hogwarts?  
The transportation system over here is 
> quite fascinating.  Some of us are renting cars, but I'm a little 
> nervous about doing so.

You sound like Arthur Weasley ('It's amazing the way the English 
trains stop for ten minutes just outside the station.  So 
*ingenious*...')

Hogwarts is over 1000 years old.  The express is an imitation train 
and so unlikely to be much more than 150 years old as a means of 
transport.

My guess is that in earlier times there were serious security risks 
for wizard children getting to Hogwarts, and the way the wizards 
chose to deal with this was to assemble in London, perhaps actually 
to mislead Muggles, and then travel by child-friendly transport 
capable of taking the entire school.  Doubtless the professors went 
too at that time.

Later, the need for security went away, or, rather, changed, but the 
tradition remained, updated to steam.  If I know anything about 
British tradition, the steam train became a fixture at about the time 
steam becme obsolete.

BTW, I assume Seamus travels from Ireland to London, an even greater 
detour.
> 
> 2)  Why does no one have tea in the books?  Heidi has a fascinating 
> theory about this that I buy (she was a history major once upon a 
> time), but why no tea in the wizarding world, yet house-elves wear 
> tea-cozies and tea-towels?  This tea thing is really so much a part 
> of the culture here that I immediately wondered about its absence 
in 
> the books.  Unless I am forgetting something...
> 
> Speaking of which, it's teatime now.  ;-)  Be interested in hearing 
> your thoughts on this.

Can I have cup, please?  Mine's white without.

Just to add to add the other posts - tea is mainly an adult drink 
here - I didn't really acquire the taste until my late teens.  So 
it's more associated with Lupin, Hagrid, Mrs Weasley than with the 
main characters.

Tea towels, despite their name, are used to dry any crockery and 
cutlery.

BTW, tea and the transport system don't really mix - most rail and 
motorway service station tea is pretty vile.

Enjoy your stay

David