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Miss Greta McCraw
The class dunce at Appleyard College. The portly, unpopular Edith receives vicious treatment from her classmates and is often the subject of their ire and ridicule. When Edith tags along on the senior girls’ excursion up Hanging Rock, desperate to fit in with them, she gets more than she bargained for: after watching her classmates become seemingly hypnotized by an unseen force, Edith encounters a nasty red cloud circling overhead and, driven by terror, runs screaming down the mountain. Mrs. Appleyard, Constable Bumpher, Doctor McKenzie and others hope that Edith will at least prove useful in the investigation of what happened to her fellow classmates—but Edith’s memory is nearly a blank slate. She is unable to recall very little of what happened to her after the picnic—though she does provide a valuable clue when she suddenly remembers seeing Miss McCraw in only her underwear climbing up the mount.
Edith Horton Quotes in Picnic at Hanging Rock
The Picnic at Hanging Rock quotes below are all either spoken by Edith Horton or refer to Edith Horton. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 2 Quotes
If Albert was right and they were only schoolgirls about the same age as his sisters in England, how was it they were allowed to set out alone, at the end of a summer afternoon? He reminded himself that he was in Australia now: Australia, where anything might happen. In England everything had been done before: quite often by one’s own ancestors, over and over again. He sat down on a fallen log, heard Albert calling him through the trees, and knew that this was the country where he, Michael Fitzhubert, was going to live.
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Chapter 3 Quotes
“I feel perfectly awful! When are we going home?” Miranda was looking at her so strangely, almost as if she wasn’t seeing her. When Edith repeated the question more loudly, she simply turned her back and began walking away up the rise, the other two following a little way behind. Well, hardly walking —sliding over the stones on their bare feet as if they were on a drawing-room carpet… […] “Come back, all of you! Don’t go up there – come back!” She felt herself choking and tore at her frilled lace collar. […] To her horror all three girls were fast moving out of sight behind the monolith.
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Edith Horton Character Timeline in Picnic at Hanging Rock
The timeline below shows where the character Edith Horton appears in Picnic at Hanging Rock. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...the girls fuss over their valentines, from the beautiful, wealthy Miranda to the “plain,” froglike Edith to the haughty heiress Irma Leopold. The girls gossip about how one of the governesses,...
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Chapter 2
...but for a group of three or four people on the other side of the creek—Edith can see that they have a white Arab pony with them. She complains about the...
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...they want to go with her. Mademoiselle tells them to be careful and stay close. Edith asks to come along, and the other girls allow her to follow them. Mademoiselle does...
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...group’s picnic dishes in the stream. The girls decide to cross the stream and bully Edith into leaping across in spite of her hesitation. As they hop across, the young man...
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Chapter 3
...into silence by its hugeness. Marion says the peaks must be a million years old. Edith, who can’t imagine a million of anything, urges her to be quiet. Edith asks if...
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...stop to rest. They take off their boots and sit in the shade gossiping. Soon, Edith says she isn’t feeling very well. She asks if any of the other girls noticed...
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Irma’s reverie is interrupted when Edith gets her attention and points out that Miranda and Marion are headed barefoot up the...
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Edith wakes from her nap with a start. She calls out to Miranda, asking when they...
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Chapter 4
...admitted that four girls had gone off to the rock—Miranda, Irma Leopold, Marion Quade, and Edith Horton.
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...the creek to call for the missing members of their party. After about an hour, Edith came “running out of the scrub […] crying and laughing.” Edith reported that the other...
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Chapter 5
...to be in good health. The only thing that disturbs McKenzie is the fact that Edith Horton claims to have no memory of anything that happened up on the rock.
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An investigator from the city arrives at the college early Wednesday morning to take Edith back to the picnic grounds to perhaps jog her memory. Bumpher accompanies them, promising Mrs....
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Edith tells the policemen she does remember seeing something strange—a “nasty red” cloud which appeared to...
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The police return Edith to the college, where Mrs. Appleyard is overwhelmed with the number of letters pouring in...
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Chapter 6
Out at Hanging Rock, Constable Bumpher finds himself frustrated with the day’s “unrewarding” search. Edith’s information has led the search in a new direction, and though they’ve turned up a...
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Chapter 7
...might be sheltering the girls. Albert sets off up the rock from the point where Edith was seen emerging from the trail, wondering if Mike has led them both on a...
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Chapter 12
Chaos overtakes the gymnasium. One student vomits while another begins flailing uncontrollably. Edith screams loudly. Mademoiselle tries to quiet the girls, but soon realizes she’s lost control of...
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Irma begins to panic as the girls encircle her. Edith pushes in closest to her and demands to know what happened to Miranda and Marion....
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Chapter 17
...of fabric thought to be part of Miss McCraw’s petticoat. The article also states that Edith Horton—a girl who accompanied the missing students up the rock but returned to the picnic...
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