Ashfield, Torquay
It is always Ashfield, the old familiar setting where one’s life first functioned… How well I know every detail there: the frayed red curtain leading to the kitchen, the sunflower brass fender in the hall grate, the Turkey carpet on the stairs, the big shabby schoolroom with its dark blue and gold embossed wallpaper.
[1]: p530 The Ordnance map[2] to the right shows Ashfield surrounded by similar villa houses, each in their own one- or two-acre gardens.
Ashfield was a large early Victorian house whose entrance carriage drive ran from Barton Road not far from the Blue Plaque.
Because of this inheritance, Frederick did not need to earn a livelihood, and so involved himself in many social pursuits; he was generally regarded as "a gentleman".
Frederick needed to return to America for a short time, so he asked Clarissa to look for a house.
The house was owned by some people named Brown who were Quakers, and when my mother hesitatingly condoled with Mrs Brown on having to leave the house they had lived in so many years the lady said gently, "I am happy to think of thee and thy children living here, my dear."
It describes the many rooms of the house and gives an outline of the garden with its beautiful trees and fine views.
The vicar who performed the ceremony was Rev Henry William Majendie, who was rector of All Saints Church, Torre, until 1900.
He was also the one responsible for the erection of the new church[5] that Frederick Miller helped to construct by giving a generous donation in his infant daughter's name.
I used to lie in bed looking at it in the firelight or the subdued light of Nursie’s oil lamp on the table.
Agatha said: One other person of importance in the house was Jane our cook, who ruled the kitchen with a calm superiority of a queen.
For grand dinner parties of twelve or more each contained alternatives – two soups, two fish courses etc".
was bereft of plants and housed instead croquet mallets, hoops, balls, broken garden chairs, old painted iron tables, a decayed tennis net and Matilde [a rocking horse].
Then came the garden proper – a stretch of lawn running downhill and studded with certain interesting entities.
The path through the woods led out onto the tennis or croquet lawn at the top of a high bank in front of the dining room window.
