George Eliot Centenary, November 1919

George Eliot's home from 1820 to 1841. The house has not been greatly altered. "It was a delightful place to grow up in, and over and above the charms of the house, farm, garden and fields, there was the high road just in front of the gate, where she and her brother stood and watched the mail-coach pass twice a day." At the back of the house is "a large, old-fashioned farm-house garden, where flowers, vegetables, fruits and trees grow in friendly confusion--just the kind of garden in which Hetty Sorrel gathered red currants."--Deakin, Early Life of G. E., p. 5, 9. The dairy is known as "Mrs. Poyser's," but it was erected after G. Eliot left Griff. The "Round Pond," into which Maggie Tulliver pushed Lucy and where Maggie and Tom used to fish, is in a field adjoining. Griff Hollows is the "Red Deeps" of the Mill on the Floss.

3. Griff House

Mr. G. H. OSBORNE

The window of the attic to which Maggie fled when in trouble (Mill on the Floss) is shown on the gable end, where the flagstaff is fixed.

4-5. Griff House

Mr. A. W. HOARE (4) Mr. S. T. SHIPWAY (5)

6-7. Griff House

Miss M. IMISON (6) Mr. A. W. HOARE (7)

8. Griff House, dairy

Mr. A. W. HOARE

9. Griff House, dairy, interior

Mr. L. P. WILSON

The Dairy is known as "Mrs. Poyser's," but it was erected after G. Eliot left Griff.

10. Griff House, garden seat

Mr. A. H. HOWELL

The little summer house at the end of the Yew-tree walk; in just such a place Dorothea found her husband after his death.

--(Middlemarch).

11. Griff House, round pond

Mr. S. T. SHIPWAY

The pool into which Maggie Tulliver pushed Lucy, and where Maggie and Tom used to fish, is in a field adjoining the house.

12. Griff Hollows

Mr. L. P. WILSON

13. Griff Hollows

Miss M. IMISON

The "Red Deeps" of The Mill on the Floss, the meeting place of Maggie Tulliver and Philip Wakem.

George Eliot's Schooldays.

14. Griff, the Dame School

Mr. A. W. HOARE

George Eliot's first school, which she attended with her brother until she was five years old. Her second school (Miss Lathom's Boarding School at Attleborough) has not been identified.

15-16. Nuneaton, The Elms

Miss C. NORTON

George Eliot's third school, near Nuneaton Church. She attended it with her sister Chrissy until 1832, when she went to Coventry.

17. Coventry, house of Rev. Francis Franklin, Cow Lane

Mr. S. T. SHIPWAY

In 1832 was transferred from The Elms, Nuneaton, to a school in Coventry, kept by the two Miss Franklins, daughters of The Rev. Francis Franklin, Minister of Cow Lane Chapel. Mr. Franklin was the prototype of Rufus Lyon (Felix Holt).

18. Coventry, back of minister's house, Cow Lane

Mr. S. T. SHIPWAY

19. Coventry, memorial tablet to Rev. Francis Franklin, Cow Lane Chapel

Mr. S. T. SHIPWAY

20. Bust of George Whitfield, at one time in Mr. Franklin's house

Mr. A. W. HOARE

"A black bust with a coloured face, which for some reason or other was covered with green gauze." "That," said Mr. Lyon, "is the eminent George Whitfield . . . Providence ordained that the good man should squint; and my daughter has not yet learned to bear with this infirmity."--Felix Holt, ch. v.

21. Coventry, Nantglyn, Warwick Row

Mr. S. T. SHIPWAY

The Misses Franklin's school was at this address. George Eliot left this school in 1835.

George Eliot's Coventry Home and Circle.

In March, 1841, Robert Evans and his daughter came to live in the Foleshill Road, until her father died in 1849. The house is known as Bird Grove, and has been much altered.

22. Coventry, Bird Grove

Mr. S. T. SHIPWAY