PHOTOGRAPHIC SURVEY of GEORGE ELIOT’S WARWICKSHIRE by members of the COVENTRY PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.
Reading edition
Arbury, South Farm.
Photographed by
Arbury Farm is on the Arbury Estate. Robert Evans, the novelist’s father, lived there from 1806 to 1820 as land agent to the estate. George Eliot was born here on November 22nd, 1819, but was taken to live at Griff House four months’ later. The farm has been much altered.
1. Arbury Farm, view from garden
Miss C. Norton
2. Arbury Farm, view from garden
Mr. G. H. Osborne.
Griff House.
George Eliot’s home from 1820 to 1841. The house has not been greatly altered. “It was a delightful place to grow up in, and over and above the charms of the house, farm, garden and fields, there was the high road just in front of the gate, where she and her brother stood and watched the mail-coach pass twice a day.” At the back of the house is “a large, old-fashioned farm-house garden, where flowers, vegetables, fruits and trees grow in friendly confusion—just the kind of garden in which Hetty Sorrel gathered red currants.”—Deakin, Early Life of G. E., p. 5, 9. The dairy is known as “Mrs. Poyser’s,” but it was erected after G. Eliot left Griff. The “Round Pond,” into which Maggie Tulliver pushed Lucy and where Maggie and Tom used to fish, is in a field adjoining. Griff Hollows is the “Red Deeps” of the Mill on the Floss.
3. Griff House
Mr. G. H. Osborne
The window of the attic to which Maggie fled when in trouble (Mill on the Floss) is shown on the gable end, where the flagstaff is fixed.
4–5. Griff House
Mr. A. W. Hoare (4) Mr. S. T. Shipway (5)
6–7. Griff House
Miss M. Imison (6) Mr. A. W. Hoare (7)
8. Griff House, dairy
Mr. A. W. Hoare
9. Griff House, dairy, interior
Mr. L. P. Wilson
The Dairy is known as “Mrs. Poyser’s,” but it was erected after G. Eliot left Griff.
10. Griff House, garden seat
Mr. A. H. Howell
The little summer house at the end of the Yew-tree walk; in just such a place Dorothea found her husband after his death.
—(Middlemarch).
11. Griff House, round pond
Mr. S. T. Shipway
The pool into which Maggie Tulliver pushed Lucy, and where Maggie and Tom used to fish, is in a field adjoining the house.
12. Griff Hollows
Mr. L. P. Wilson
13. Griff Hollows
Miss M. Imison
The “Red Deeps” of The Mill on the Floss, the meeting place of Maggie Tulliver and Philip Wakem.
George Eliot’s Schooldays.
14. Griff, the Dame School
Mr. A. W. Hoare
George Eliot’s first school, which she attended with her brother until she was five years old. Her second school (Miss Lathom’s Boarding School at Attleborough) has not been identified.
15–16. Nuneaton, The Elms
Miss C. Norton
George Eliot’s third school, near Nuneaton Church. She attended it with her sister Chrissy until 1832, when she went to Coventry.
17. Coventry, house of Rev. Francis Franklin, Cow Lane
Mr. S. T. Shipway
In 1832 was transferred from The Elms, Nuneaton, to a school in Coventry, kept by the two Miss Franklins, daughters of The Rev. Francis Franklin, Minister of Cow Lane Chapel. Mr. Franklin was the prototype of Rufus Lyon (Felix Holt).
18. Coventry, back of minister’s house, Cow Lane
Mr. S. T. Shipway
19. Coventry, memorial tablet to Rev. Francis Franklin, Cow Lane Chapel
Mr. S. T. Shipway
20. Bust of George Whitfield, at one time in Mr. Franklin’s house
Mr. A. W. Hoare
“A black bust with a coloured face, which for some reason or other was covered with green gauze.” “That,” said Mr. Lyon, “is the eminent George Whitfield . . . Providence ordained that the good man should squint; and my daughter has not yet learned to bear with this infirmity.”—Felix Holt, ch. v.
21. Coventry, Nantglyn, Warwick Row
Mr. S. T. Shipway
The Misses Franklin’s school was at this address. George Eliot left this school in 1835.
George Eliot’s Coventry Home and Circle.
In March, 1841, Robert Evans and his daughter came to live in the Foleshill Road, until her father died in 1849. The house is known as Bird Grove, and has been much altered.
22. Coventry, Bird Grove
Mr. S. T. Shipway
22a. Coventry, gates of Bird Grove
Mr. J. Bradbury
23. Coventry, Bird Grove, window of George Eliot’s study over entrance
Mr. A. W. Hoare
24–25. Coventry, Bird Grove, study and bedroom
Mr. A. W. Hoare (24) Mr. S. T. Shipway (25)
26. Coventry, Bird Grove, room used by G. Eliot as drawing room
Mr. S. T. Shipway
27. Coventry, Bird Grove, study
Mr. S. T. Shipway
28. Coventry, Bird Grove, interior
Mr. S. T. Shipway
29. Coventry, “Rosehill”
Mr. L. P. Wilson
George Eliot first visited “Rosehill,” the home of the Brays, on November 2nd, 1841. There is an interesting account of this visit in Bray’s Autobiography, p. 76. The Brays and the Hennells exerted an important influence on her life.
30. Coventry, Ivy Cottage,
Mr. L. P. Wilson
The home of the Hennell family; adjoins “Rosehill.”
Scenes of Clerical Life.
Nuneaton is the Milby of Janet’s Repentance. There is an amusing description of a Sunday morning service at the church at the beginning of the story.
31–32. Nuneaton church, exterior and interior
Miss C. Norton
33–34. Nuneaton church and vicarage
Miss C. Norton
35. Nuneaton, Lawyer Dempster’s house
Miss C. Norton
No. 35 Church Street, the Orchard Street of Janet’s Repentance. The original of Dempster was a Mr. Buchanan.
36–37. Nuneaton, Dempster’s house, other views
Miss C. Norton
38. Nuneaton, garden of Dempster’s house
Mr. A. H. Howell
39. Nuneaton, grotto in Dempster’s garden
Mr. A. H. Howell
40. Chilvers Coton church
Miss C. Norton
The “Shepperton” church of Amos Barton. George Eliot was baptised here. The tenor bell was hung in her memory (1909). “The little flight of steps with their wooden rail running up the outer wall and leading to the children’s gallery,” is still in existence.
41. Chilvers Coton church
Mr. A. H. Howell
42. Chilvers Coton church, interior
Mr. S. T. Shipway
43. Chilvers Coton church, children’s gallery
Mr. G. H. Osborne
44. Chilvers Coton vicarage, garden
Mr. A. H. Howell
The open window belongs to the room in which “Milly Barton” died.
45. Chilvers Coton vicarage and church
Mr. S. T. Shipway
46. Chilvers Coton churchyard, Emma Gwyther’s grave
Mr. S. T. Shipway
Mrs. Gwyther was the original of “Milly Barton” of The Sad fortunes of Amos Barton, one of the most touching stories in English literature. The inscription is transcribed in full in Olcott’s George Eliot, scenes and people in her novels.
47. Chilvers Coton churchyard, Emma Gwyther’s grave
Mr. A. W. Hoare
48–48a. Chilvers Coton churchyard, tomb of Robert (“Adam Bede”) and Christiana Evans.
Mr. A. W. Hoare (48) Mr. A. Hunt (48a)
49. Chilvers Coton churchyard, tomb of Sarah and Isaac Pearson Evans (“Tom Tulliver” and his wife)
Mr. A. H. Howell
50. Chilvers Coton church, extract from parish register
Mr. W. H. Stokes
Recording the marriage of Edward Clark and G. Eliot’s sister Chrissy, “Celia” of Middlemarch. The signatures include those of the Rev. John Gwyther (“Amos Barton”), Robert Evans (“Adam Bede”), Mary Ann Evans (the novelist), and Isaac P. Evans (“Tom Tulliver”—see No. 49).
51. Arbury Hall
Mr. W. H. McLauchlan and Mr. W. H. Stokes
A copy of an older photograph; the view is not the same to-day. This is the “Cheverel Manor” of Mr. Gilfil’s Love Story. Arbury is the home of the Newdegate family. Robert Evans, father of George Eliot, was land agent for the Newdegate estate. This “castellated house of grey-tinted stone is described beautifully in the Love Story, ch. 2. See also three books by Lady Newdigate-Newdegate: The Cheverels of Cheverel Manor; Gossip from a Muniment Room; and Cavalier and Puritan.
52. Arbury Park, George Eliot Memorial
Mr. W. H. Stokes
Erected by Mr. F. A. Newdigate-Newdegate, M.P. Of rough grey stone, recording the dates and places of her birth and death, and the words “Lest we forget.”
52a. Arbury Park, Caterina’s Walk
Mr. W. H. McLauchlan and Mr. W. H. Stokes
Ch. 7. of Mr. Gilfil’s Love Story.
52b. Arbury Park, The Rookery
Mr. W. H. McLauchlan and Mr. W. H. Stokes
“The thick shades of the distant Rookery” where Caterina found the body of Captain Wybrow.
53. Astley church
Mr. W. H. McLauchlan and Mr. W. H. Stokes
Astley is the “Knebley” church of Mr. Gilfil’s Love Story—“a wonderful little church, with a checkered pavement which had once rung to the iron tread of military monks.” (ch. 1).
53a. Astley castle
Mr. O. W. Barry and Mr. W. H. Howell
“Knebley” castle.
53b. Astley castle and gateway
Mr. W. H. McLauchlan and Mr. W. H. Stokes
53c. Astley castle, the moat
Mr. W. H. McLauchlan and Mr. W. H. Stokes
“Adam Bede.”
53d. Corley Hall farm, gates
Mr. A. W. Hoare
“Evidently that gate is never opened; . . . and if it were opened, it is so rusty, that the force necessary to turn it on its hinges would be likely to pull down the square stone-built pillars, to the detriment of the two stone lionesses which grin with a doubtful carnivorous affability above a coat of arms, surmounting each of the pillars.”—Adam Bede, ch. 6.
53e. Corley Hall farm, row of walnut trees
Mr. A. W. Hoare
“That grand double row of walnut trees on the right-hand of the enclosure.”—Adam Bede, ch. 6.
“Silas Marner.”
54–55. Bulkington, single hand-loom at
Mr. A. W. Hoare
Bulkington is possibly the village George Eliot had in mind in describing Raveloe (Silas Marner). The photographs show a hand-loom used in Silas Marner’s day.