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
Sahib for many years, even when no Indian or Pakistani crew featured in the ship's company. The term is used throughout the children's novel "A Little Princess" by Frances Hodgson Burnett. In Herman Cyril McNeile's 1920 novel "Bulldog Drummond", an Indian magician was performing tricks in front of a crowd and drew attention to a mysterious box. E.M. Forster also employed the term in his 1924 novel "A Passage to India". His Anglo-Indian characters refer to the Collector as Burra Sahib, implying the respect felt for him. The following dialogue in Dorothy Sayers's 1926 novel "Clouds of Witness" shows what the