Frances Hodgson Burnett suffered a physical collapse that autumn. She returned to America, and in the winter of 1902 entered a sanatorium. There she told Townsend she would no longer live with him, and the marriage ended. She returned to Maytham two years later in June 1904. Maytham Hall had a series of walled gardens and in the rose garden she wrote several books; it was there she had the idea for "The Secret Garden", mainly written in Buile Hill Park while visiting Manchester. In 1905 "A Little Princess" was published, after she had reworked the play into a novel. Once again Burnett
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