Frances Hodgson Burnett reduced income, Eliza had to give up their family home and moved with her children to live with relatives in Seedley Grove, Tanners Lane, Pendleton, Salford, where they lived in a house with a large enclosed garden in which Frances enjoyed playing. For a year Frances went to a small dame school run by two women, where she first saw a book about fairies. When her mother moved the family to Islington Square, Salford, Frances mourned the lack of flowers and gardens. Their new home was located in a gated square of faded gentility adjacent to an area with severe
Frances Hodgson Burnett frilly dresses for herself. She allowed her sons' hair to grow long, which she then shaped into long curls. After two years in Paris, the family intended to move to Washington, D.C., where Swan, now qualified as a doctor, wanted to start his medical practice. However they were in debt, so Frances was forced to live with Swan's parents in New Market while he established himself in D.C. Early in 1877 she was offered a contract to have "That Lass o' Lowrie's" published, which was doing well in its serialization, and at that point she made her husband her business