what does "hooted at"mean? Marguerite Oswald is the most implausible individual in her son's life, himself excluded, and she may be sui generis, but then they are all implausible. It would be too facile to dismiss the public's desire to quarantine Lee as mere smugness. The men and women he knew are odd. Indeed, Oswald is rather like a Dickensian caricature. He bears a striking resemblance to the title character in Barnaby Budge. Born on the day of his father's death, Barnaby was twisted by the maternal blunders of Mary Rudge, a woman whose life, like Marguerite's, had been one of hardship and sorrow. Half-witted and highly susceptible to his environment, the youth was swept up in the No Popery mob that marched on Parliament, hooted at Edmund Burke, and burned most of London in 1780.