"yard" / Muggle money / "Ottery"

[hp_lexicon]

No: HPFGUIDX 42938

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., eloiseherisson at a... wrote:

I have always assumed that the Muggles could see the Burrow. Would 
the word "yard" really be used for a village square? That doesn't 
seem right at all, but maybe that's my American way of thinking of 
things coming through. 

There are a number of things to support this. As someone mentioned, 
the Weasleys themselves are obviously visible from the village from 
the Burrow since they have to be careful where they fly on 
broomsticks. Also, Molly wouldn't have used the phrase "I don't 
think he knows where it is" in reference to the postman if she knew 
he couldn't see the place at all. On top of that, they take the 
trouble to de-gnome the garden. In an interview, JKR said that one 
of the problems with gnomes is that their holes are a dead giveaway 
to Muggles that Wizards live there. I know they could be de-gnoming 
on to save the plants or on general principals, but frankly, I don't 
see them being all that particular about some lumpy patches in the 
ground, judging by the boots lying around. 

> 
> 
> > 
> > And who paid for all this? 

I think the Ministry actually has quite a stash of Muggle money 
around and it was this that the Weasleys tapped into. I've travelled 
quite a bit and every time I'm in a foreign country I find it tricky 
to keep a sense of how much the money is worth. I'm sure Molly 
doesn't think of British pounds as money, really, so paying what we 
would consider to be a vast sum for a taxi ride with cash that is 
otherwise basically worthless to her would not be such a big deal. 
I'm sure Arthur, as he hurried around getting ready to head for 
Moody's house, had someone at the Ministry "apparate" a five or six 
hundred pounds to the kitchen table for her to use.

There is the possibility that Molly simply conjured it up, and that 
it vanished a couple of hours later, but that's blatant thievery and 
it doesn't seem like something Molly would do.


> 
> I have also used the Ottery St Mary analogy to suggest that Ottery 
St 
> Catchpole is somewhere in south Devon, but to be fair, we don't 
actually 
> *know* that it is. It's obviously the inspiration for the name, 
but we don't 
> know the location.

I don't think that Ottery St. Catchpole is Ottery St. Mary, since 
that's a fairly large town. But because of the Ottery in the name, 
it almost certainly has to be located along the Otter River, don't 
you think? If it were a Wizarding village, I wouldn't be so certain 
that they would follow naming conventions like that (although they 
probably would). But since it's a Muggle town, wouldn't you say that 
it's a sure thing? Are there examples of towns in Britain that 
include the name of the river but AREN'T located along or near it?

Steve
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