Norah Lofts Trivia

1. What part of England is Baildon in, anyway?

From Quiz Norah Lofts Country

Answer: Suffolk

Almost all of Lofts' English novels were set in East Anglia, most in south Suffolk. The 'real' nearby city most often mentioned is Colchester. Baildon is said to be patterned after Bury St Edmonds.

From Quiz 'St Michael and All Angels'

Answer: The Fleece

Will Oakley bought the inn from Job Wainwright; a story from Job's ownership of the inn can be found in the book 'Hester Roon'. (These two stories overlap slightly - see the Interesting Info on Q8, below). By the time our story starts Will had been the Landlord for four years, and he was just enjoying the fact that he had repaid all the money he had borrowed to buy 'The Fleece' in the first place.

From Quiz Norah Lofts Country

Answer: Bywater

Books of this sort need a handy seaport, and Bywater is mentioned in almost every book. This is where Ethlereda Benedict first meets civilization, in "The House at Old Vine", and Sir Godfrey's brother, William, is the Bishop of Bywater, in "Knight's Acre".

From Quiz Scent of Cloves

Answer: she secretly hates her

Geertruida Belderdik is certain that Julia is Johannes' child by some other woman, and she hates and resents her, while taking care that Johannes does not know. "...the long years of hiding her true feelings, hiding even her real nature, came to her aid...opposition at this stage would be unwise; give way but be watchful and when the slightest excuse offers itself, edge her out."

From Quiz 'Bless This House'

Answer: Elizabeth

The Rawley sisters were seen as expendable bargaining chips by their father Matt, who married them off to the men who would bring him the most land, money and help around his own farm. Elizabeth was in love with Jon, but married Tom according to her father's wishes. In the Elizabethan era, this was not uncommon.

From Quiz 'St Michael and All Angels'

Answer: she was badly pocked from smallpox

Her disfigurement left Harriet embittered with life and prone to spite towards people who were pretty. Even Effie, who had very little going for her in the way of looks, earned Harriet's envy, for her skin was beautiful and clear even if her features were not attractive. For many years Harriet had been trying different cosmetics and cures, to no avail, and would paint a thick paste onto her face every morning, to face the world.

From Quiz Scent of Cloves

Answer: The Klopstock Home

When Johannes is killed in an accident while on a voyage, Geertruida wastes no time in packing Julia off to the "Christian Benevolent Orphanage for Girls, more familiarly known as the Klopstock Home." Julia spends a few very unhappy years here, until she becomes a "Company's Daughter". Here, girls are trained to become the wives of nutmeg planters in the East Indies.

From Quiz 'St Michael and All Angels'

Answer: he was a doctor

Jonathan knew Will from twenty years before, when Will was called Mike Latter, and was the doctor on board the 'Ethiopian Queen'. Through a series of misadventures, Will had killed the captain, and the two men ended up in a life raft with a third man, Peter Dunn, who died. Taking that man's fortune, they split up; Jonathan was held as a captive slave in North Africa while Will returned to England. Thirsting for revenge as his money had been taken, he came looking for Will when he was released in order to extract monetary revenge for having been a slave for twenty years.

From Quiz Norah Lofts Country

Answer: Layer Wood

The wood is spread out like a six fingered glove, with great houses at the points and in the hollows, and footpaths and short cuts all through.

From Quiz Scent of Cloves

Answer: glove

"It was a glove of yellow silk with pearls sewn in a pattern on its gauntlet. 'Isn't that pretty? Well, take it, dear. It's for you. Your husband is named Pieter Vosmar and he is twenty-two...'" So Julia sets sail for the island of Rua, married to a man she has never seen.

From Quiz 'Bless This House'

Answer: Alice

Alice was not burned at the stake, although she was condemned to this fate, for she was bitten by a rabid dog beforehand. Her 'confession' - which was the context of this section of the book - was available for successive generations to see. Her own ancestors were not to be owners of Merravay until the post-WWII period, but her husband (who was her cousin) was to father a child by a local woman, and that family were to buy the house from the Cromwellians.

From Quiz 'St Michael and All Angels'

Answer: they were brother and sister

While Will distrusted Dick, although he could never pin-point the reason why, he knew instinctively that he could trust his life to Effie. They had come to 'The Fleece' from the orphanage in Job's time, and were as ill-treated as all working children of the times. Described in detail, Effie comes across as an unattractive girl who was ignored by everyone but content with her lot in life; she worshipped God and loved Will Oakely because he occasionally noticed her and inquired over her well-being.

From Quiz Norah Lofts Country

Answer: Mortiboys

The history of the place goes back to before the Norman invasion - in "Jassy" Barney Hatton tells us the story of how it was named: "The owner of the place at that time, called upon to be William's liege or to surrender the place, 'refused with many oaths,' and when the day of reckoning came, opposed, with his little force of house-carls, the mounted knights. At sunset he was surrounded in the only spot which remained to him - a woodsman's hut in the centre of the woods. There, with the last three of his men dead about him, he set fire to the hut and died within the flames. And the Normans were sufficiently impressed by his performance to name the place Morte de Bois, which name upon the tongues of the common Saxon people was eased down to Mortiboys." Later legend tells that the wife of this Saxon, newly pregnant, visited the Norman lord, and "enthralled him with her sorrow and beauty" so he married her. Later, when the Tudor-era Hattons acquired the place as a gift from Henry VIII (the owners had been Catholics) the first Hatton married the daughter of the original, Norman, family.

From Quiz 'Bless This House'

Answer: King

Alice and Rawley aided him with warm clothes and money at first, but later were part of a network of assistance for the King in an area which was inclined towards the Puritan cause (parliament). It was during one of these runs that Rawley was killed and Alice was arrested as a witch.

From Quiz Norah Lofts Country

Answer: Ockley

Fennels are mentioned in most of the books, and play some part in several ("Jassy", "Nethergate" and "Bless This House" come to mind) but so far as I can tell, there is no book set at Ockley.

From Quiz Scent of Cloves

Answer: an accidental fall

"'I will not have him called that! Idiots are born, not made. Pieter was like anybody else until that pig of a woman let him fall.'" Dr Hootman, Pieter's caretaker, does not agree. He believes that Pieter was born with his condition, and if the marriage is consummated, "'...you'll have an idiot grandchild on your hands.'" From the description given of Pieter, and from his behaviour, it seems likely that he has Down's Syndrome.

From Quiz 'St Michael and All Angels'

Answer: Dick's involvement with highwaymen

Effie was a deeply religious girl, and the lies she had been forced into was going a long way to destroying the serenity of her soul. Constantly praying that her involvement in Sarah's pregnancy would not be forced to the conclusion Sarah demanded of her, she looked to Will as a way out, but the presence of Smail that evening seemed an insurmountable obstacle. There was something evil in the man's eyes that terrified her far more than Sarah's demands that she kill the baby the moment it was born.

From Quiz Norah Lofts Country

Answer: Hattons

Mortiboys itself passes to the Helmars at one point, when the Chris Hatton of the time gambles it away. My favorite gambling Christopher Hatton is "Gentleman Johnny", Felicity's father, in "The House at Sunset".

From Quiz Scent of Cloves

Answer: a starving woman in a cage

She had been Pieter's nurse when he was a child. During the month of Ramadan, she left the child for a moment, after a day of fasting, to get a drink of water. That was when he fell, and, so Mynheer thinks, caused his mental affliction. "'So, since Ramadan meant so much to her, more than her duty or my child's well-being, I decreed that she should keep it for the rest of her life.'"

From Quiz 'St Michael and All Angels'

Answer: £300 a year

Even though Will told him that that represented the total annual profit of 'The Fleece', Smail was determined that Will owed him. Given that the money left by Peter Dunn, amounted to £1,000 (£500 each), it seemed that Smail wanted far more than he had lost when he was captured. Will would have accepted the monetary blackmail, but drew the line at Smail's suggestion that he hand over one of his beloved daughters to this man.

From Quiz Norah Lofts Country

Answer: The Hawk in Hand

The One Bull is the tavern in "A Wayside Tavern", the Pot of Flowers is where Davy Armstrong first starts to go bad ("The House at Sunset") and the Fleece is the inn where Hester Roon was born ("Hester Roon"). The Hawk in Hand was a base of Royalist sympathy, during the Civil War.

From Quiz Scent of Cloves

Answer: a smuggler

Julia had been bringing food and water to the caged woman, Psyche. On this day, she allowed the woman to get hold of the water bottle. Psyche immediately broke the bottle, and, with a sharp piece of glass, cut her own throat. Julia was covered with blood, and aware that there was no way that she could hide what had happened from Mynheer, who would be furious that his long revenge had been terminated. Charles happened along just at this point, and cheerfully assured Julia that he would take responsibility for Psyche having access to a bottle. So simply, the flame of love is lit. Later in the book, we find that Charles has been smuggling cloves (which Mynheer has been growing illegally) off the island for Mynheer, and, unknown to Mynheer, smuggling unlimed (still fertile) nutmegs in cahoots with Dr Hootman.

From Quiz 'Bless This House'

Answer: he owned a tobacco plantation in Virginia

Her son, Roger, was strongly opposed to the working of slaves, and was petitioning government to withdraw from the whole trade. This work included trying to persuade his mother to relinquish her hold on the negro slaves on her plantation, which added another problem to the already taut atmosphere in the household.

From Quiz 'St Michael and All Angels'

Answer: with her sister Myrtle

The only spare bed was in a room with a male guest, and Smail had demanded a room of his own with a lockable door and fire. The Blue Room was the room Harriet asked her father to let her have after the events of that night, and as far as the story goes, we know of no intention of ever having anyone sleep in the Parlour. It was Myrtle who ventured into the attic room with blankets to make things a little more comfortable for a couple of vagrants who were spending the night, and it was while she was putting the blankets in the sorry, long-neglected, thought-haunted room that she found the considerable hidden cache of money left in the rotten mattress by Hester Roon's mother fifty years before.

From Quiz Norah Lofts Country

Answer: Turnbull

It is a Turnbull who gets a glimpse of Rupert Hatton's will and learns that Felicity will be a rich woman some day. His hastily arranged Fleet marriage to her does him no good, however; she ends up seeing through his plan. ("The House at Sunset") The "strange strain" in the Old Vine family has its final appearance in Felicity's tale; the queer wanderer whom she finally marries has the familiar name - Rancon.

From Quiz Scent of Cloves

Answer: a young kinsman of Mynheer's

The arrival of Nicolas is another step in Mynheer's grand scheme. He plans that Nicolas should impregnate Julia (with her consent if possible, if not, no matter). To the eyes of the world, it would seem that the odd, reclusive Pieter Vosmar was living a more or less normal life, begetting children, and running the estate with the help of his kinsman, Nicolas. In reality, Nicolas would be in charge of the plantation, and living with Julia, secretly, as her husband. Any child would be born with the family features, and be accepted by society, and, more importantly, by the Company, as Pieter's son. A fine scheme, ruined by Julia's love for Charles, and Nicolas' inherent decency.

From Quiz 'St Michael and All Angels'

Answer: Harriet Oakley

Harriet had a cache of once-tried and then hidden potions and ointments for her face, gathered over the years, and never thrown away. As she is clearing out her room for Smail to occupy it, we learn the history of one of these in particular. This was sold to her by a local 'wise woman' with the warning that the solution should not go too close to her mouth as it was poison. She put this into a decanter of wine and gave it to Smail to drink under the pretence of drinking to their future together as man and wife. After being forced to drink some of it herself, she was later violently sick and survived; her father, seeing the tell-tale makeup on both glasses in Smail's room, guessed what had happened and together they arranged that the local doctor would put the death down to bad oysters.

From Quiz 'Bless This House'

Answer: great-granddaughter

Charlotte's father was the second son of Olivia Sandell Booth, whose marriage was forced on her by her father, while her brother George helplessly objected. George willed Merravay to her third son, Alan, while her eldest son inherited Gore Park from his father.

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