Rolvenden became one of the Kent Marian Martyrs when he was burned at the stake in Canterbury on 12 July 1555 - he is named among the 41 martyrs inscribed on the Martyrs' Memorial, near Wincheap Street, Canterbury and in Foxe's Book of Martyrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett rented Great Maytham Hall, down from the higher land towards Rolvenden Layne, in 1898 and a blocked-up door in the old walled garden inspired her to write the well known children's novel "The Secret Garden". After her departure in 1907 the mansion was rebuilt in 1910 by Edwin Lutyens for the Rt Hon H.J.
Frances Hodgson Burnett evening salon and soon attracted visitors, meeting Stephen Townsend for the first time. Despite her busy schedule, she felt ill from the heat and the crowds of tourists, spending protracted periods in bed. With her sons, she moved on to spend the winter in Florence, where she wrote "The Fortunes of Philippa Fairfax", the only book to be published in England but not in the United States. That winter "Sara Crewe or What Happened at Miss Minchin's" was published in the United States. She would go on to make "Sara Crewe" into a stage play, and later rewrite the story