Interesting thoughts—thanks for sharing! I really like the idea of Laurence Arne-Sayles and Norrell as playing similar roles in very different ways—and, yes, it's true that both of them are ultimately very limited in their understanding of magic, while characters like Stephen, Vinculus, Childermass and Matthew-Piranesi know and understand more.

Very good points about social acceptability, too. Hmm, I wonder what might happen in the world of Piranesi if someone more widely acceptable decided to try and start telling people about magic—or perhaps that's not possible, perhaps the sort of person who understands the House would never want to.

I think Clarke used to say that only someone as boring and unthreatening as Norrell could bring magic back to England.

Did she? I like that :D