I read in a French novel a reference to the passion to be found in Les Hauts de Hurlements and how difficult it is to write in such a manner to day. For a moment I am thrown. Then I guess that it is Wuthering Heights to which the author must be referring. Although I first read W H when I was still at school and have read it at least once since, I have never known the meaning of "wuthering". It sufficed as far as I was concerned to know that |Wuthering Heights was the house on the moors which was the home of the Earnshaw Family where Catherine and Heathcliffe were brought up. "Wuthering" barely needed a meaning as it is so close to onomatopoeia. Hurlements translates as a "sharp and prolonged screaming" which just about does. I could not find "wuthering" in the The Shorter Oxford Dictionary. But Chambers comes up with "blowing quickly with a roaring sound" from the verb to wuther.
Bassett hounds with their long ears and low suspension were bred for hunting hares and rabbits. Apart from their short legs they have very long bodies. We pass one emerging from a house with a woman and two children. Half and hour later we meet them again as they are about to re-enter their house. This basset in particular has a melancholy expression like a bloodhound to which the breed is related, but they all look sad.
2 comments:
I take it it's a long time since a bassett hound caught a hare - or even a snail.
Hard to imagine I agree. Thanks for the spell check!
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