Thursday 26 March 2009

Looking for Dunsayn Manor

Roz and I went for a stroll in the hills south of Dorking last week. I say a stroll - where Roz is involved, it's never less than a hike and more usually we're pretty much climbing.

I had some idea of trying to get a precise location for Dunsayn Manor, Estelle's family home, which I know is somewhere around Dorking. Tanhurst Lane, south-west of Leith Hill, looks a likely spot.

As we drove through the town, I noticed a shop called
Astronomia. I'm pretty sure it wasn't there in 1901, but if it had been then obviously that's where Estelle got her telescopes. It also suggests that there's good seeing out that far from London, though before electric streetlighting that presumably wouldn't have been much of a problem.

Up above the village of Coldharbour there's a cricket pavilion and pitch, 870 feet above sea level. Hit a six the wrong way and the ball just sails off over a sheer drop. I like the notion that Lord Deerdand would have padded up for a few matches.

The look of Dunsayn Manor btw was styled after
Magdalen New Buildings (built in 1733 but still called New Buildings, as I'm sure will amuse our American readers).

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