'The House at Sunset' (2) Hatton's & Lydia's Tales Quiz

Answer: Harrow

'I think Mother's cousin, Chris Hatton, who had inherited Mortiboys, chose my school' he'd been happy there himself, though he'd learned very little, being incorrigibly stupid. Life itself couldn't teach Cousin Chris anything.' Hatton had a miserable time for the first three weeks, then settled in well and enjoyed himself.

Answer: wearing a wig

Annabella's hair refused to grow any other way than short close curls 'like the fleece of a young lamb', and because everyone in Baildon knew what her hair was like, she refused point-blank to wear a fashionable wig. As the ball went on, Hatton noticed that the other young ladies' hair was falling into disarray, but his sister 'looked like a water-lily'.

Answer: the day Annabella ran away

Hatton had seen how Richard treated his horses and feared for his sister, but was unable to persuade either Aunt Dorothea or Annabella that Richard was a bad person. Supposedly a reformed gambler, he lost heavily in a game and then ran off to London. Desperately in love with him, Annabella gathered some money together and followed him.

Answer: immediate marriage

When Annabella was sick with the pills, Hatton wanted to fetch the doctor, but Aunt Dorothea would not let him; she knew what had happened and her attitude to Annabella was never the same again. It was Hatton who suggested moving away and pretending that his sister was a widow, but it was Aunt Dorothea who insisted that a husband be found, and quickly, and Annabella agreed to this plan. Before anything could be done, however, she lost the child.

Answer: the Corn Exchange

Hatton met Charles Selby at Mortiboys at the time he was thinking of building the Corn Exchange, and his plans went from the simple 'grey brick cowshed' (as Selby described it) to a gothic monster which ate money from the outset.

Answer: that Tom did not treat his wife that badly and they had no recourse in law

What would be grounds for a divorce these days was not two hundred years ago. In those days a woman belonged to her husband, as was illustrated in that their solicitor only referred to her as Tom's wife, and said, 'After all, a man's right to beat his wife as a corrective has never been questioned. And in a beating injuries more grave than a few bruises and a torn scalp are frequently sustained.' In spite of warnings that to remove Annabella from her marital home would be considered 'harbouring', Hatton sold his interests in and around Baildon and the twins moved to Italy.

Answer: Lizzie and Ethel

As the story goes on, we are led to believe that her friends are Elizabeth Kentwoode and Ethelreda Benedict; one of the things they tell Lydia is how they each started reading and writing, and encouraged her to learn both.

Answer: that Jack Plant walked her there and back

Jack Plant would slip off to the tavern while Lydia was in her lesson, but was never drunk on the return walk (this was another condition from Mr Walker). The lessons went on well for some time, until Mr Rigby got a little familiar with his pupil, and Lydia ran away, determined not to return.

Answer: he went to America

After her father became ill, Lydia discovered that, had she married Jack, chances are they would have been able to keep the house because Jack would have taken over the business. Lydia was never to marry, and I wonder if she regretted refusing Jack because that started off the problems she made for herself in later life.

Answer: it was divided it up and sold it bit by bit

'Father sold it off piecemeal, with the same unthinking ruthlessness as in the old days he'd have sold a cow away from its calf, a calf away from its mother. Five separate shops. Holes knocked in the walls for new doors and windows, nasty new staircases, partitions of cheap pitch-pine cutting my lovely big rooms into two or three, even four, little boxes.'