Lady Fuchsia Groan on Gormenghast Mountain, at a site overlooking the Castle chosen by her mother, in a ceremony at which neither her brother the Earl, recovering as he was from the severe fever that followed his killing of Steerpike, nor Dr. Prunesquallor, who was caring for the Earl, could attend. It was immediately after a visit to her grave that Titus decided to abandon his hereditary responsibilities and go out into the world. In "Titus Alone", Fuchsia is one of the characters from the earlier novels mocked by Cheeta in the nightmarish scene that she puts on in the Black House (chapter
Mervyn Peake that Chinese influences can be detected in his works, not least in the castle of Gormenghast itself, which in some respects echoes the ancient walled city of Beijing, as well as the enclosed compound where he grew up in Tianjin. It is also likely that his early exposure to the contrasts between the lives of the Europeans and of the Chinese, and between the poor and the wealthy in China, also exerted an influence on the Gormenghast books. His education continued at Eltham College, Mottingham (1923–29), where his talents were encouraged by his English teacher, Eric Drake. Peake completed his