"Do Drop By, But Don't Drop In!"

[Bob_the_Bartender]

Hey gang,

This old expression sounds as if it might have been the mantra of Barnabas Collins in so far as his alleged flat/house in London's Cadogan Square was concerned.

Of course, Barnabas attempted to fend off the inquisitive Desmond Collins' questions about his home in merry, olde England with this explanation today (as Mr. B. had done with the equally inquisitive Burke Devlin in 1967).

You know, I wonder if Barnabas really ever had a place in Cadogan Square?  (By the way, does Cadogan Square really exist in London?)

I can just imagine what would have happened if (in, say, 1967) cousin Carolyn actually knocked on Barnabas' front door in Cadogan Square.  Mr. B. would morph into a bat and "wing it" over to either Basil and Sybil Fawlty's four-star hotel in Torquay by the sea, or to Hyacinth Bucket's stylish home in the London suburbs (where the starstruck and affluent-people loving Mrs. Bucket would gladly put him up in her absent son Sheridan's room for a couple of days) or until Carolyn finally departed back home for the States.

I suspect that Barnabas' Cadogan Square flat/house may be as illusive as Sherlock Holmes' flat at 221 B Baker Street.

Bob the Bartender 

[Raineypark]

Yes, Bob......Cadogan Square is in Knightsbridge....a VERY upscale area of London.  Of course, it WOULD be.  If you were going to lie about where you lived in New York you'd say the upper East Side, not Long Island City, right?

(Don't jump down my throat...I was born in Long Island City...... ) 

[Gerard]

I'm imagining Barnabas - if he lived in Cadogan Square - having The Two Fat Ladies as his cooks and housekeepers.  As he wakes up to begin his nocturnal life, he finds them, their day done, sitting on his stoop, having their cigarettes, telling him in their nice, cockney accents:  "Your mutton chops and blood-and-kidney pie are warming in the oven," as they then climb into their motorcycle with its sidecar and head off down the road until another day.

Gerard

[Julia99]

"Say upper east side"?

Depends. . I'm on the Upper West side-Lincoln Square, right behind Lincoln Center. . .and i'm quite preferring it to my days in Chelsea with no cable .. .hmmmmm

[Bob_the_Bartender]

Yes, Bob......Cadogan Square is in Knightsbridge....a VERY upscale area of London.  Of course, it WOULD be.  If you were going to lie about where you lived in New York you'd say the upper East Side, not Long Island City, right?

(Don't jump down my throat...I was born in Long Island City...... )

Hey, I'm sure that Long Island City is like Spring Lake, NJ in comparison to, say, Flushing, Queens or Red Hook, Brooklyn (the original stomping grounds of one William Hollingshead Loomis!).

[Josette]

What always gets me about his cousin from England story is that he is the son or descendant of the "original" Barnabas who went to England, so presumably was brought up and spent all or most of his life there.  He's just arrived.  Usually, at least one person is suspicious of him - in this case, Desmond.  But no one ever questions the lack of an English accent!!

[Cassandra Blair]

Yes, I've always wondered about Barnabas's lack of an English accent.  Do you s'pose the cultured, well-bred tones of his voice simply fooled the Collins family into believing his story?

Also then too - in this storyline Julia's posing as his sister.  Where's HER English accent?  I guess she lost it during her time in Pennsylvania? 

[Gerard]

Also then too - in this storyline Julia's posing as his sister.  Where's HER English accent?  I guess she lost it during her time in Pennsylvania? 

You can lose everything in Pennsylvania.

(Just kidding!  I lived in PA for four years and loved it.  I might even eventually move back there)

Gerard

[Joeytrom]

Ner York City's Mayor Bloomberg owns a flat in Cadogan Square.

[LorraineAAB]

Yes, I've always wondered about Barnabas's lack of an English accent.  Do you s'pose the cultured, well-bred tones of his voice simply fooled the Collins family into believing his story?

Any generation of Louis Edmonds characters had a stronger British inflection(transmuted from Southern)  than Jonathan Frid's (Canadian-to-England-to USA), and THEY were SUPPOSED to be All-American.   1795's practically accentless Daniel grows up to be afflicted and inflected 1840 Daniel, with no backstory to explain that, perhaps, he has spent quality time in England himself, while growing up.

Also then too - in this storyline Julia's posing as his sister.  Where's HER English accent?  I guess she lost it during her time in Pennsylvania? 

Jah, she should have arrived sounding like Pennsylvania Dutch.  ("We Collinses catch different accents with the ease that some people catch a cold.")

But again, referring to Brothers with accents and Sisters without, there was precedent,
in the Roger-- Elizabeth relationship (and any permutation of Edmonds and Joan Bennett characterizations.)  Elizabeth DOES sound highly refined and cultured and a bit stilted, but still, it's American upper-crust.  J. Bennett's 1795 Naomi sounds less British than her husband Joshua, though in THAT period, it might be assumed that both had more contact with actual English, and might even have spent time there (at least prior to the Revolution.)

To make matters even MORE confusing, Joshua's sister (never made clear if she was younger or older) Abigail sounds more New England than anyone, and much younger brother Jeremiah has NO accent whatsoever.  Neither does his daughter Sarah, but his SON does (even though it seems BARNABAS had been spending a lot of time "brushing up on his FRENCH"!)

L.

[Bob_the_Bartender]

Also then too - in this storyline Julia's posing as his sister.  Where's HER English accent?  I guess she lost it during her time in Pennsylvania? 

You can lose everything in Pennsylvania.

(Just kidding!  I lived in PA for four years and loved it.  I might even eventually move back there)

Gerard,

Weren't Nicholas and Cassandra Blair, not to mention Lady Kitty Hampshire (nee Kowalski), all native-born Pennsylvanians?

So, as former Phillie great third baseman, Mike Schmidt, used to say:

"Hey, you've got a friend in Pennsylvania!!!"

I reluctantly mention that the great George Carlin once said of the popular PA automobile license plate motto:  "Of course you've got a friend in Pennsylvania!  It stands to reason.  You've "bleeping" lived in that state, your whole "bleeping" life, haven't you!?!"

Bob the Bartender, who's shedding a tear as they start to tear down the wonderful Veteran's Stadium (only thirty-three years old!).

[Gerard]

Come to think of it, Bob, there does seem to be a psychic connection between DS, at least several of the characters, and Pennsylvania, and we don't even take notice.  Even I fell under the spell.  When Harper's started the new DS novel series, I began work (just for fun) on my own novel, a rather epic thing that explored the lives of Collinwood's denizens from 1927 to 1949.  And the prologue, set in 1918, takes place in - where else? - Pennsylvania.

Gerard