Frances Hodgson Burnett dissolution of their marriage some years earlier. Swan took his own apartment and ceased to live with Burnett, so that after a period of two years she could plead desertion as a reason for the divorce. The press was critical, calling her a New Woman, with "The Washington Post" writing that the divorce resulted from Burnett's "advanced ideas regarding the duties of a wife and the rights of women". From the mid-1890s she lived in England at Great Maytham Hall—which had a large garden where she indulged her love for flowers—where she made her home for the next decade, although
Frances Hodgson Burnett into "A Little Princess". In 1888, Burnett returned to Manchester, where she leased a large home off Cromwell Road, had it decorated, and then turned it over to cousins to run as a boarding house, after which she moved to London, where she again took rooms, enjoyed the London season, and prepared "Phyllis" for production, a stage adaptation of "The Fortunes of Philippa Fairfax". When the play ran she was disappointed by the bad reviews, and turned to socializing. During this period she began to see more of Stephen Townsend, whom she had met during the Jubilee year. In December