'The House at Old Vine' (4) - Antony's Tale Quiz

Answer: secretary

". . . and there was myself, who, since the age of eighteen, had been employed by Sir Henry in a capacity which defies exact description. Sometimes he called me his secretary, sometimes his scrivener fellow. I wrote his letters and kept the estate accounts; I dealt with complaints and requests from tenants and escorted Lady Saxham whenever she went anywhere where her husband scented boredom. I lived in the house, was always called Antony by the family and Mr Flowerdew by everyone else, and was paid so little that I was still virtually dependent upon the tanyard which I had repudiated when I was about twelve years old. I hired it out on a make-and-take basis and my share made more than adequate pocket money."

Answer: his right arm

Although Antony had full use of his arm from elbow to finger-tips, his arm was clamped tightly to his body down to that point, and even dressing was excruciatingly painful for the rest of his life.

Answer: Rahab

Rahab was the prostitute who helped the spies sent by Joshua when they went into Jericho to check out the city before the Hebrews took the city. Rahab was named in the genealogical ancestry of Jesus in the New Testament.

The spy organisation to which Antony belonged were called Rahabites - 'every battle isn't fought in the field . . . '

Answer: he was not to meet her - she was dead by this time

Barbara's son was away fighting with the King at this time, and she ran the inn by herself with help from hired hands. It was more of a home than an inn - "The Old Vine was a magnificently appointed house in which only the most necessary concessions had been made to fit its present purpose. Two large mats of woven rushes lay end to end inside the door, beyond them was the shining floor of the ordinary well-kept house; there was none of the dirty sawdust or sand or chopped straw of the average inn."

Answer: in a dream

Antony was dreaming when the name popped into his head, as the accommodating Barbara of his imagination suddenly turned into the straight-laced Mrs Kentwoode of reality and said 'You should go to the Hawk in Hand and ask for Emma Webster.' He could not account for this name, but followed the lead and met Emma at the taproom in Baildon later that day.

Answer: that the back of the cupboard opened to a priest hole

Inside the priest hole he found the resting skeleton of the priest who had died in there after Henry Kentwood, Madam Elizabeth's grandfather (see the quiz on Elizabeth's Tale) died of the stroke. Recognising the old-fashioned clothes, Antony knew that his discovery had nothing to do with his job as a Rahabite so when he told Barbara about it he went on to help her dispose of the bones in a burial.

Answer: Helmar

The Rowhedges lived at Merravay, and were part of the organisation, while Barbara was a member of the Hatton family of Mortiboys. Astallon was one of the family names of the Old Vine matriarch, Anne Blanchefleur. Antony discovered, after much effort, that Mr and Mrs Helmar had moved away to Mrs Helmar's home in the Canary Islands, with no intention of returning to England.

It was to Mr Helmar that he was to lay the blame for all the activity which Enoch Bellson had detected in the area.

Answer: No

That evening she and Antony met up in her parlour and there Antony told her about himself, and all that he had learned within two days about the organisation. He named her son, and Charles Rowhedge of Merravay (see the quiz on 'Bless This House') as well as Emma Webster at the Hawk in Hand. Barbara did not confess to any of this, although she did admit to Antony that her son was with the King, and that she had sent him warm underwear, as any mother would.

Answer: Bridewell

"But when you get a chap like poor Bodkin, what is tried and found guilty, but ain't delivered from gaol by way of a whipping or the stocks, just left, what can I do? I don't run a free lodging house, do I? Porridge, and a bit of bread now and then, is the best I can do, and at that I'm out of pocket.

We muck out today.

There's another thing - straw! Cheap, but it ain't free. But nobody that wasn't downright hard-hearted could let a chap lay on bare stone this weather. Tell you the truth, sir, this case, Bodkin, been an eye opener for me, you clump down your good money to be a gaoler year after year, and you make just enough profit to keep yourself alive from them waiting trial that can afford to pay for comforts.

Then you get landed with a Bodkin and you're sunk.'"

Answer: Antony's arrival in Baildon

In writing to her brother, Barbara hoped to give the school a steady, if small, income, while at the same time giving Antony help if Christopher left, as he had often said he would. In reality, she lumbered the Old Vine with a problem which was to be many years in the solving.

A story to be told in the next section of this book, as told by Elthelreda.

Christopher's graveyard cough could well have been 'lung-rot' (later to be called consumption, and then TB), "his heritage from forbears he had never heard of." This is another connection to show that Maud and Walter Reed were the children of Richard Reed, Martin's son, rather than the children of Denys Routier, with whom their mother had had a dalliance.