the Crawfords' house

The Crawfords' house was the first English home Mary Lennox knew after the cholera epidemic in India left her an orphan. It was the residence of an English clergyman, Mr. Crawford, who was poor and whose household was crowded with five children of nearly the same age, all wearing shabby clothes and constantly quarreling and snatching toys from each other. Mary hated their untidy bungalow and was so disagreeable to the Crawford children that after the first day or two nobody would play with her. The house itself, with its cramped quarters and atmosphere of perpetual squabbling, offered Mary no comfort or kindness, only a new kind of neglect that sharpened her already sour disposition.

The Origin of the Nickname

It was at the Crawfords' house that Mary acquired the mocking nickname that would follow her. Basil Crawford, a little boy with impudent blue eyes and a turned-up nose, first sang the rhyme "Mistress Mary, quite contrary, / How does your garden grow? / With silver bells, and cockle shells, / And marigolds all in a row" while dancing around her and making faces. The other children quickly joined in, and the crosser Mary became, the more they sang. From then on, as long as she stayed with them, they called her "Mistress Mary Quite Contrary" when speaking of her to each other and often when speaking to her directly. The nickname crystallized the household's perception of her as a plain, unattractive child with the most disagreeable ways Mrs. Crawford had ever seen.

A Place of Temporary Refuge

The Crawfords' house was never meant to be a permanent home for Mary. Basil informed her that she was to be sent away at the end of the week, and that her destination was her uncle, Mr. Archibald Craven, who lived at Misselthwaite Manor. Mrs. Crawford, reflecting on Mary's situation, noted that her mother had been a great beauty with a pretty manner, while Mary had inherited neither. The house thus served as a brief, unhappy waystation between the catastrophe in India and the mysterious isolation of Misselthwaite, a place where Mary's already contrary nature was reinforced by the hostility and mockery of the children around her.