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 in action in Flanders in 1915. J. M. Barrie wrote to Guy's nephew George Llewelyn Davies to inform him of the death; by the time Barrie received his response, George himself had been killed. 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