M&D spoiler, ch. 1: "Geordie"

[Penny Padgett]

Hi all,

Earlier this week, Andrew corrected a reviewer's mistaken placement
of County Durham in Scotland.  I asked him if he could gloss the
term "Geordie" for me (a term Mason applies to Dixon).  Here is his
reply, which he kindly permits me to post to the list:

>From: andrew at cee.hw.ac.uk
>Date: Tue, 29 Apr 97 10:26 BST
>To: Penny Padgett <padgett at telestream.com>
>Subject: Re: Washington Post
>References: <3.0.32.19970428091446.0069f0c4 at mail.telestream.com>
>
>	Penny Padgett writes:
>> Put it down to New World ignorance ... Can you, at least, parse
>> the term "Geordie" for me?  I was sure that meant a Scot.
>
>Geordie? That's someone from the North East of England,
>Northumberland, Teesdale, the Tyne and Wear Valleys and County Durham.
>Major cities include Middlesboro, Sunderland and Newcastle. A
>beautiful part of the country with a great history. The North East was
>the traditional land of the Percy family (who are mentioned in Henry
>IV and V and go back even further). Much of the area, particularly
>that which reaches up towards the Scottish borders, was out of control
>of both the English and Scottish thrones and was subject to repeated
>raids from either side of the border (and between neighbouring
>villages in the borders area) for the purpose of stealing sheep,
>cattle, women and goods right up until the late 16th century - see
>George McDonald Fraser's book `The Steel Bonnets' for a riveting
>history of these Reevers (as the raiders were known). The North East
>used to be the core of late C19th shipbuilding and coal mining. These
>are the traditional industries which would have been reasonably active
>even in M&D's time. The technologies of the Industrial Revolution were
>being developed even as M&D were plotting their eponymous latitude but
>they were deployed in Lancashire and South Yorkshire, passing the
>North East by. Shipbuilding and coal mining peaked at the turn of this
>century and have been in slow but now almost complete decline since.
>The depression of the thirties hit the North East particularly hard as
>did the depression of the late 80s (which closed one of the country's
>biggest steel mills at Consett, County Durham. Things are looking up
>now with many large industrial and retail developments being
>concentrated around Newcastle/Gateshead. The people are utterly
>lovely, brash and blunt sometimes but sharp, funny and generous. Oh
>and my girlie comes from there. The best of England.
>
>
>Andrew Dinn
>-----------
>And though Earthliness forget you,
>To the stilled Earth say:  I flow.
>To the rushing water speak:  I am.
>
>