A Quiz on "Swallowdale"

Answer: Their great-aunt is visiting.

Their great-aunt Maria is a stern tyrant who does not approve of the Blackett girls running loose on the hills and sailing on the lake. She tries to turn them into well-dressed and well-behaved young ladies. Nancy and Peggy, as well as their mother and uncle ("Captain Flint"), are waiting anxiously for her departure. Nancy does get the mumps in the fourth book, "Winter Holiday".

Answer: There is no-one to meet them at the station.

All of these things in fact happen during the first chapter of "Swallowdale", but the first hint comes when they arrive at the train station and "no one had been there".

Answer: Pike Rock

As Swallow begins to enter the small harbour at the end of the lake, a gust of wind catches the sail the wrong way and John crashes the boat on Pike Rock. This explains why most of the story has to be set on land and why they have to camp somewhere other than Wild Cat Island.

Answer: Peter Duck's

"Peter Duck" is the name of an imaginary character that the Swallows and Amazons (and the Amazons' uncle, Jim Turner or "Captain Flint") have created during a holiday over the winter. He was a retired sailor come home with a bag of pirate gold. This story is told in the third book of the series, "Peter Duck". Captain Flint knows about the cave, but he had called it "Ben Gunn's cave" when he was a boy.

Answer: Swainson's

Dixon's Farm is where the Swallows stay in "Swallows and Amazons" and in the opening chapters of "Swallowdale". Tyson's and Atkinson's are found in the later book "Pigeon Post". The real Swainson's Farm can be found just behind Nibthwaite at the south end of Coniston Water.

Answer: An arrow containing a message.

Nancy fires a crossbow arrow into the harbour where she knows John is working on the new mast for Swallow. When they take the arrow apart, they find a long message from Nancy giving them directions on how to cross the moor and find them at Beckfoot (their home). They are to bring supplies for an ascent of Kanchenjunga.

Answer: The Matterhorn

"Kanchenjunga" is the name that the Swallows give to The Old Man of Coniston, an impressive mountain which looms over Coniston Water and which is climbed today by many summer visitors. The previous party had climbed the mountain in August 1901 ("Swallowdale" is set in 1931) and consisted of Nancy and Peggy's mother and father (he is now dead) and their uncle Jim ("Captain Flint").

They left a message, "we climbed the Matterhorn".

Answer: A thick fog-bank rolls in from the sea.

The Lake District, where "Swallowdale" is set, lies very close to the Irish Sea and can be hit by sudden rainstorms or fog-banks. One such fog-bank descends while Titty and Roger are retracing their route to Swallowdale. They get disoriented and turned round and end up in a strange valley with no sign of the lake.

Answer: The Billies (the charcoal-burners)

The children have met the Billies (named after Old Billy and Young Billy -- Young Billy is only in his seventies) in "Swallows and Amazons". They take Roger into their camp, put a poultice on his ankle, and get Titty back to Swainson's Farm. The next day a stretcher party is organised to get Roger back to Swallowdale.

Answer: To have his breeches mended.

Roger has discovered a rock slide (called "the Knickerbockerbreaker") on one side of the valley, and is forever wearing out the seat of his shorts sliding down the slippery rock. He needs to be darned at least twice a day by Mary Swainson. One of the illustrations in the book shows Roger patiently draped over Mary's knees while she mends his breeches (again!).