Minding your Manors

Steve <bboy_mn@yahoo.com> bboy_mn at yahoo.com
Sat Feb 22 02:48:00 UTC 2003


No: HPFGUIDX 52687

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Aisling <irishash at e...>"
<irishash at e...> wrote:
> Manawydan wrote:
> 
> > If it was huge, it wouldn't have been called a manor! Among the 
> > 19th century English aristocracy, it was the smaller landowners 
> > (the squires)who would have lived in manors. A house would have
> > been much bigger than a manor. 
> 
 
 
> I think that the confusion here arises from the fact that an 
> 18th/19th century house is not the same as a 20th/21st century house. 
> An example of this is  visible (at):

href="http://www.gardensireland.com/newbridge-house.html
>
> ...edited... 
> 
> *emerging from lurkerdom*,
> Aisling

bboy_mn:

Excellent link in case you haven't gone to look at it. 

Go to the MAP page and touch your mouse pointer to the various colored
'dots' and 'squares' and pause, and a small info tag will pop up
telling what house/castlte/garden is at that location. Many with links
to websites for that specific house or attraction. And while it is an
excellent chance to see some beautiful luxurious Irish houses, it
doesn't solve our problem.

The problem is that what has been designated as a manor or house or
castle is very inconsistent.

For example:

Here is a Manor that any reasonable person would think was closer to a
castle.
http://www.gardensireland.com/carrigglas-manor.html

and here is a castle that any reasonable person would think is closer
to a manor...

and having said that, they almost all would qualify as mansions in my
book.

Addtionally note that by definition a 'manor house' is a mansion, but
I would hardly call most mansions a 'house' as a defining term.

When we discussed this before, some of us leaned toward the conclusion
that in the truest sense a 'manor' included a great deal of land. It
was like an estate. We also made the distinction between Malfoy manor
and Malfoy Manor. Malfoy manor being an estate and Malfoy Manor being
the name of the manor house.

I suspect there are many manor houses in London that at one time stood
on large estates, but as progress and the city encroached on their
land, estates were sold off for development (usually developed into
grounds for more mansions). So what was a large country estate
gradually shrunk to a manor house with grounds in the city. 

This is how I see Malfoy's house/manor/mansion. Regardless of what
your definition is, I think Malfoy live in a mansion with significant
grounds, but not enough grounds to qualify as as estate or a true manor. 

In my own read of Malfoy's, they live in a very exclusive area of the
city (magic city or muggle city is unclear, I assume magic city), an
area that is comprised of almost exclusively mansions and grounds of
varying sizes.

Other's read it as Malfoy's living in the country or in a rural area
very similar to the Riddle family whose house certainly qualifies as a
mansion in book. 

Still other visualized as a small country estate.

So to some extent, where Malfoy's live depends on your personal vision
of the book rather than some precise definition of the word 'manor'.

Just a few thoughts. Check out that link, there really are some
beautiful houses shown there.

bboy_mn










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