Pendle
Hello,
Here’s a sentence from a grammar book, in an exercise for perfect tenses. No context. I am curious what could Pendle be. Google did not help. Could it be the name of an estate from a classic book?
“I’ve definitely decided to give Pendle up”.
I am not giving Pendle up yet :).
Thank you.
Pendle must be a proper name (reminds me of Pendleton, Oregon).
It may or may not refer to a hill in Lancashire, England called Pendle.
It's a very beautiful moorland area close to the Trough of Bowland on the western fringes of the Pennine range of mountains running up from the north Midlands all the way up to the Scottish border and the Pennines are generally called the backbone of England because of its spinal location up the middle of the country.
Pendle Hill has been associated with witches and witchcraft ever since a group of women were suspected of being witches and were hung on Pendle Hill following their trial (much like the Salem Witch trials in Massachusetts, USA - same period of time more or less. People were very superstitious in those days, and ever since then Pendle Hill has always been linked with misty mystery (it's often shrouded in mists anyway), an air of dark foreboding (especially in those swirling mists), and an atmosphere of eerieness with a hint of evil doings.
On a clear sunny day it's bloody lovely! No hint of mystical malpractice. All sunshiney and dappled pastures populated by harmless sheep. Apparently. I've never been down there - I always go down to the east of the Pennines.
Maybe the writer found Pendle a wee bit scary......who knows. If it was the same Pendle. I can't think of any other Pendle. In Google UK there are lots of links connected to Pendle and Pendle Hill. But as I say, among Lancastrians Pendle Hill is always associated with witches and witchcraft.
http://www.skiptonweb.co.uk/tourist/nearby_attractions/pendlehill.htm
Thank you very much, Damian.
I had read abt that tourist attraction, but as the book seems to use quotations from fiction literature in exercises I thought it was from a fairly well-known book. Who’s the connoisseur here - Uriel?
Sorry, never heard of a Pendle. But it sounds like a name, and is capitalized like one, so it must refer to a person or place. Just not one I know!
I liked Damian's explanation, though. If he's right, "giving it up" probably means either moving away from there or no longer coming to visit it -- like having to give up the beach house once your IRS statement comes in, or having to give up Boston once your wife finds out your girlfriend lives there.
There used to be a real ale in these parts called "Pendle Witches" - see Damian's explanation. Maybe he was partial to a tipple!