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
Arthur Hodgson the exhibitions of Vienna (1873), Paris (1878) and London (1886). Hodgson married, in 1842, Eliza Dowling, second daughter of Sir James Dowling. They had seven children, including Annie Frances Hodgson, who went on to marry James Wilfred Hewitt, 5th Viscount Lifford. Lady Hodgson died on 2 May 1902, in her 81st year. Hodgson died later that year, at Clopton House on 24 December 1902 and was buried with his wife in Stratford-upon-Avon Cemetery. Arthur Hodgson Sir Arthur Hodgson KCMG (29 June 1818 – 24 December 1902) was an Australian pioneer and politician. Hodgson was born in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, England; the