"They were all famous and fantastic fellows"
About this Quote
"They were all famous and fantastic fellows" sounds like a toast raised with a grin, the kind that flatters a room while quietly taming it. Coming from Peter Scott - an artist, but also a public-facing naturalist and establishment insider - the line does double duty: it celebrates a circle and gently edits it into legend. "Famous" is the social credential; "fantastic" is the aesthetic gloss. Together they turn individual people into a curated cast.
The phrasing matters. "Fellows" is breezy and clubby, a word that collapses hierarchy into matey camaraderie while still implying an in-group. It's not "men" or "artists" or "colleagues" - it's the language of the mess hall, the committee, the expedition, the polite British network where belonging is a form of capital. Scott's sentence is a soft-focus lens: it refuses the sharper details (ambition, rivalry, dullness, cruelty) that accompany most famous people, and in doing so signals the speaker's own ease among them.
The subtext is also defensive, maybe even elegiac. When you say everyone was fantastic, you're often writing over something messier: compromises, politics, the awkward fact that fame is unevenly distributed and rarely pure. As an artist who moved between culture and conservation, Scott knew how reputations are built - by repetition, by warmth, by a well-placed adjective. This line doesn't just remember a group; it gently instructs you how to remember them.
The phrasing matters. "Fellows" is breezy and clubby, a word that collapses hierarchy into matey camaraderie while still implying an in-group. It's not "men" or "artists" or "colleagues" - it's the language of the mess hall, the committee, the expedition, the polite British network where belonging is a form of capital. Scott's sentence is a soft-focus lens: it refuses the sharper details (ambition, rivalry, dullness, cruelty) that accompany most famous people, and in doing so signals the speaker's own ease among them.
The subtext is also defensive, maybe even elegiac. When you say everyone was fantastic, you're often writing over something messier: compromises, politics, the awkward fact that fame is unevenly distributed and rarely pure. As an artist who moved between culture and conservation, Scott knew how reputations are built - by repetition, by warmth, by a well-placed adjective. This line doesn't just remember a group; it gently instructs you how to remember them.
Quote Details
| Topic | Joy |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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