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Sun 25 Aug, 2013 01:50 am
On turning a corner out of a narrow coppice-bordered lane into a wider road that sloped steadily upward in a long stretch of hill Elaine saw, coming toward her at no great distance, a string of yellow-painted vans, drawn for the most part by skewbald or speckled horses. A certain rakish air about these oncoming road-craft proclaimed them as belonging to a travelling wild-beast show, decked out in the rich primitive colouring that one’s taste in childhood would have insisted on before it had been schooled in the artistic value of dulness. It was an unlooked-for and distinctly unwelcome encounter. The mare had already commenced a sixfold scrutiny with nostrils, eyes and daintily-pricked ears; one ear made hurried little backward movements to hear what Elaine was saying about the eminent niceness and respectability of the approaching caravan, but even Elaine felt that she would be unable satisfactorily to explain the elephants and camels that would certainly form part of the procession.
Could anyone explain the bold part?
A horse can be made nervous by things that appear suddenly in the road, cars, people, animals etc. Elaine is talking reassuringly to the mare about the approaching circus caravan (procession of vehicles and people). The mare moves her ear to better hear her voice. She is saying, in a calming voice, that the procession is full of nice people and animals and that the horse doesn't need to worry. The mare is responding to Elaine's tone of voice. The author is telling us in an imaginative way that Elaine feels fairly sure that there will be animals such as elephants and camels in the procession, that these will be unfamiliar and probably frightening to the mare, and that her voice may be insufficiently calming when the horse sees them. Elaine does not actually need to actually "explain" the elephants and camels to the mare; animals don't understand the words that we say to them.
I kind of liked the part about artistic value of dullness. Yes, we need better education.
@roger,
roger wrote:... dullness ...
I see you spell that word as I do. I have often seen the one-L spelling in American material, but in British usage it is obsolete and has been superseded by the two-L version. I wonder how old the quoted text is anbd where it is from? [Update] 1912, Britain. I Googled but I really should have recognised the style. We're still ploughing through The Unbearable Bassington.
@contrex,
Thanks for your explanation. It really helps.
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