Mary Lennox arrives at Misselthwaite Manor

Mary Lennox's arrival at Misselthwaite Manor marks the beginning of her transformation from a neglected, sour orphan into a child capable of health, friendship, and wonder. Orphaned by a cholera epidemic in India that killed her parents and scattered her servants, she is sent to live with her reclusive uncle, Archibald Craven, at his vast, six-hundred-year-old estate on the edge of the Yorkshire moor. The journey and her first impressions of the house establish the physical and emotional isolation that will define her early days there, while also introducing the key figures and rules that shape her new life.

Journey and First Impressions

Mary travels from London to Yorkshire under the care of Mrs. Medlock, the stout, sharp-eyed housekeeper of Misselthwaite Manor. During the long train ride, Mrs. Medlock prepares Mary for the "queer place" she is going to, describing a house with nearly a hundred rooms, most of them shut up and locked, set on the edge of a vast moor. She tells Mary that her uncle, Archibald Craven, is a hunchback who became "queerer than ever" after his wife died, that he cares about nobody, and that he shuts himself up in the West Wing, seeing only his old servant Pitcher. Mary, who has never been taught to care about others, listens with a mixture of indifference and curiosity, her sour expression unchanging. The final leg of the journey takes them across Missel Moor in the dark, a drive that feels to Mary like crossing a black ocean, the wind making a "wild, low, rushing sound" that she mistakes for the sea.

The House and Its Rules

Upon arrival, Mary is led through a massive oak door studded with iron nails into a dimly lit hall filled with portraits and suits of armor that make her feel "small and lost and odd." She is not greeted by her uncle; instead, Pitcher tells Mrs. Medlock that Mr. Craven does not want to see her and is leaving for London in the morning. Mary is taken through a bewildering series of corridors and staircases to a room with a fire and supper, where Mrs. Medlock lays down the law: "This room and the next are where you'll live—and you must keep to them. Don't you forget that!" She is told she must not wander or poke about the house, and that she will have to play alone and look after herself. The house, with its locked rooms and hidden grief, immediately presents itself as a place of secrets and prohibitions.

The Moor and the Servants

The next morning, Mary wakes to find a young housemaid, Martha Sowerby, lighting the fire. Martha is a round, rosy, good-natured Yorkshire girl who speaks in broad dialect and is not at all subservient. She tells Mary about the moor, which Mary declares she hates, and about her own large family, including her brother Dickon, who has a way with animals. Martha's frankness and independence are a shock to Mary, who is used to Indian servants who salaam and obey without question. When Mary throws a tantrum and calls Martha a "daughter of a pig," Martha is not cowed, and Mary ends up sobbing with loneliness and rage. Yet Martha's sturdy kindness gradually begins to break through Mary's defenses. Martha also reveals the existence of a locked garden that no one has entered for ten years, the key to which Mr. Craven buried after his wife died. This secret garden becomes an immediate object of fascination for Mary, a mystery that promises an escape from the dreary house and its rules.

The First Days of Isolation

In her first days at Misselthwaite, Mary's life is monotonous and lonely. She eats her meals alone in a nursery furnished with heavy old oak chairs and gloomy pictures, and she has nothing to do but stare out at the moor. She begins to go outside, walking through the kitchen-gardens and the orchard, where she meets the surly old gardener Ben Weatherstaff and his friendly robin. The robin, with its bright red breast and cheerful song, becomes a companion of sorts, and it is through watching him that Mary first feels a glimmer of interest and even a "queer feeling in her heart." She also hears, on her first night, a mysterious crying sound somewhere in the house, which Mrs. Medlock and Martha deny. This unexplained cry, along with the locked garden, deepens the sense of hidden life within the seemingly dead manor, and plants the seeds of Mary's determination to uncover the secrets that surround her.