Toby is not to blame for this. Pip was the one who first practised to deceive. She insisted from the very first second she found out the cows had broken into Bridge Farm land on keeping the escape from David and Ruth. The minute she decided not to get their help but to make the inexpert Toby assist her instead and swore Ed to secrecy about the second batch, she had embarked upon weaving the tangled web.
And after the outbreak but before Toby had said a single word about not telling, Pip lied to Ruth about no fences being broken or cattle getting out, even inventing a possibly limping cow to distract Ruth from the subject. So twice she deceived her parents about what was going on before ever Toby had a chance to voice his opinion. He only reinforced her wish to keep on covering up. How wrong they are when they say itâs not like Pip. She was very deceitful when going out with Jude.
Josh is a right little sneak, too. What a credit they are to the Dopeys!
When the subject first came up, she started out all confident about None of our cattle ever got out, after Ruth asked her; but then she suddenly remembered and went silent, and when Ruth asked her âWhat?â she said that cow might be limping. I think sheâd literally forgotten about it until that moment, and like a whole lot of people was utterly unable to say âoops, no, Iâm wrongâ as someone would if they were sensible, and lied instead.
I do agree that she set out to try to pretend to them that the cattle had never got out in the first place, but that wouldnât have mattered if not for the IBR, and not knowing that she was a crap farmer who couldnât be arsed to mend a broken fence would have done her idiotic and overindulgent parents no particular harm.
Why nobody including the cattle spotted that broken fence for about three weeks is a whole 'nother matter: Ruth is a crap farmer for that.
Should we be asking where these escaping cows had escaped from, in relation to the two other farms?
If they were at the main Brookfield farm fields, then to wander to both the main Home Farm and Bridge Farm locations would seem to have needed them to cross the bridge over the Am and trot across or around the village green.
Even Toby said words to the effect of âhow could you forget that?â so Iâm going to have to put that down to crap plotting because I really find it very hard to believe Pip would not instantly have thought âOMG what about the Anguses and Adamâs new cattle?â when first hearing about the outbreak of IBR at Brookfield. She wouldnât have necessarily have come clean, but she ought to have been worrying about it spreading. We were, after all!
And I find it just as hard to believe that having been reminded of the Great Escape, she then forgot about Ed putting his lot in with Adamâs cattle. She claimed to have forgotten about that, too, until Ed mentioned it. Huge plot device, imo, all this forgetfulness.
All three farms are south of the Am, and Brookfield has at least some fields south of the Am.
The lane on which the cows were found by Ed is presumably the one that goes past Sawyerâs Farm and round to Home Farm via the electricity sub-station and the road to Leaderâs Wood, which might well have Brookfield land on one side of it and Home Farm land on the other. The only trouble is that Home Farm is east of Brookfield, but Bridge Farm is to the south, and I really canât see how cows breaking out through one fence would end up going off in two different directions.
JJ, I was assuming that she is massively stupid and has an extremely poor memory. That has to be a given, since she had forgotten stock breaking out, and no farmer does that until months or years after the event, any more than a cat owner forgets their cat going missing for several days.
Iâm not as nice as you are. I think it was wilful forgetfulness and I think as well she was winding Toby up to tell her what she wanted to hear: that it wasnât her fault and that she should keep quiet. Note how she is now starting to blame Toby for that!
I seem to remember hearing a fairly extended blather from Toby (maybe 2 April, or 30 March) along the lines of âdonât own up, they donât need to knowâ. I donât think Pipâs a good enough manipulator to push him into doing that.
Thatâs true, Hedgers. On March 30 Toby made no fewer than four exculpatory statements. I present into evidence:
You are not responsible for what happened
Youâre not being fair on yourself
For you to beat yourself up like this âŚ
Pound to a penny [it] wasnât your fault at all
Pip just saying âI ought to confessâ was bound to have that effect and sheâd know that. It wasnât so much manipulation as ⌠not sure how to put it ⌠telling the one person she knew would talk her out of it that she was going to confess. Imagine if sheâd has the same conversation with Jill. Or even Ed. But she didnât, did she?
The Magnetic North one, which is the same as the one on the BBCâs own website at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/archers/wallpaper/ambridge_1024.shtml but has wider edges, showing Home Farm up the road beyond Marneyâs, and Bridge Farm beyond Heydon Farm on the road past Brookfield. The left fork after Heydon Farm goes round past Sawyerâs and the electricity sub-station to Home Farm eventually.
Nah, thatâs too general. It fits, ish, but itâs not the word or string of words of which I am thinking.
To the accompaniment of vile loud slurping, btw. Apologies to the non-catted.
Thanks for that. I couldnât find BF on any of the maps I have and was using an aerial print type thing, which just has a little arrow pointing down a road, claiming it goes to Bridge Farm.
This same chart shows the road to Lower Loxley, when it was at a greater distance to the village, than it is, now itâs been moved to the outskirts.
It also has Honeysuckle Cottage on the LH side of the village green, befoire it was moved to other side.
Iâm surprised the Beeb have never brought out a board game based on the wandering houses of Ambridge.
One at least of the available maps seems to be turned ninety degrees or more from North-at-the-Top, which is always worrying.
Lover Loxley is a village at least two miles from Ambridge, and Elizabeth lives in Lower Loxley Hall, which is definitely not in Ambridge nor on its outskirts, but in the middle of that different village.
You know where LL is supposed to be and I know where LL is supposed to be. But that didnât stop a recent BBC effort, moving it to just outside the village.
Comparing the 1975 map with later maps is great fun. Brings a whole new meaning to mobile homes.
