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
Guy du Maurier Guy du Maurier Guy Louis Busson du Maurier DSO (18 May 1865, London, England – 9 Mar 1915, Kemmel, Flanders, Belgium) was an English army officer and playwright. He was the son of the writer George du Maurier and brother of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies and the actor Gerald du Maurier. He was educated at Marlborough and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and in 1885 became an officer in the Royal Fusiliers. He served in the Second Boer War, where he commanded a mounted infantry regiment, earning the Distinguished Service Order in 1902. He achieved notoriety in 1909 as the author