The Grounds
The Map of St Elowen’s
A hundred acres of parkland, wood and water. Choose a mark on the map to see what stands there, or read the whole estate below. Every place here is a real page you may walk into. One of them is not marked. You will have to find it.
On a small screen you may pinch to zoom and drag to move about the map. Every mark is also listed below.
The whole estate
Every corner, in words
- The Drive A long drive off a lane, and then the last gentle hill, and then the house, all at once, real.
- The Great Elm An enormous spreading elm at the gate. It has stood through every storm the Weald has thrown at it.
- The Cedar A towering cedar on the drive, and the furthest a junior girl may go without a mistress.
- The Founder's Tower A tower, a spiral stair, a locked door, and one small light in a high window.
- The Observatory A telescope, a window, and a lantern. So they say. Nobody now at the school has been up.
- The Chapel The oldest and loveliest building on the estate. Stained glass, an organ, and a Latin grace.
- The Great Hall Blackened oak beams, crested banners, long tables. This is where the Welcome Feast happens.
- The Library A ladder on a rail, a smell of dust and glue, and the loudest quiet in the school.
- The Pinetum A plantation of great pines. Walking in is like walking out of the school altogether.
- The Yew Walk Laid out, a very long time ago, by a gardener who came here from Versailles.
- The Lake and Boathouse Yes, there is a lake. And a boathouse. And, on the far side, a great deal of mud.
- The Orchard and the Cottage An old orchard, and beyond it the cottage where the Foundress lived out her long retirement.
- The Rose Garden A walled rose garden, best in June, and much visited by girls with something to think about.
- The Playing Fields Hockey. The great fixture is against Bramblehurst, and it is not always ours.
- The Gymnasium Ropes, a vaulting horse, and the particular echo that only a school gymnasium has.
- The San The sanatorium. Matron's kingdom, where a girl with a cold is thoroughly enjoyed.
- The Duke Passage A portrait of a duke in a passage. Girls touch it for luck. Nobody knows why. Everybody does it.
- The Courtyard The still centre of the maze, with a worn flagstone and a great deal of ivy.
- The Stable Roof Reachable, by the daring, from a certain window. Strictly, emphatically, out of bounds.
- The Dormitories Elm, Oak and Holly, up under the eaves. Elm's blankets are pale green.