Great Maytham Hall December 2003 the Country Houses Association announced that it was closing down its residential business and selling the eight Grade I and II listed buildings it owned. The walled garden of Great Maytham Hall provided the inspiration for one of the most famous of all books for children, "The Secret Garden". Its author, Frances Hodgson Burnett, lived at Great Maytham Hall from 1898 to 1907, where she found the old walled garden dating from 1721 sadly overgrown and neglected. Aided by a robin, Burnett discovered the door hidden amongst the ivy, and began the restoration of the garden, which she
William Hope Hodgson novel, in which he poured out his imagination at its most unbridled, and not his last. Gafford writes: "This concern over the order of composition of the novels may seem of little importance until we consider the implications toward Hodgson's work overall. .. in effect, Hodgson moved away from "TNL"’s quasi-science fiction scenario (which contained an astounding number of original conceptions) and toward "BoGC"’s more basic adventure slant." If we accept Gafford's thesis, then Hodgson actually wrote "The Boats of the "Glen Carrig"" last, and it benefits from the modernization of style to the point where it is Hodgson's most