Manderley has become mistress of Manderley, senses an atmosphere of doom about it, due to the death of Max's first wife (the titular Rebecca), and it is hinted that she haunts the estate. Childhood visits to Milton Hall, Cambridgeshire, home of the Fitzwilliam family, influenced the descriptions of Manderley, especially the interior. She told the 10th Earl Fitzwilliam in a letter that when she wrote "Rebecca" 20 years later, the interior of Manderley was based on her recollection of the rooms and 'big house feel' of Milton in the First World War. The adult du Maurier's Cornish home near Fowey, called
George du Maurier Illustrated Times", "The Cornhill Magazine", and the religious periodical Good Words. Furthermore, he did illustrations for the serialization of Charles Warren Adams's "The Notting Hill Mystery", which is thought to be the first detective story of novel length to have appeared in English. Among several other novels he illustrated was "Misunderstood" by Florence Montgomery in 1873. Owing to his deteriorating eyesight, du Maurier reduced his involvement with "Punch" in 1891 and settled in Hampstead, where he wrote three novels. His first, "Peter Ibbetson", was a modest success at the time and later adapted to stage and screen, most notably in