Treasure of Green Knowe

Author Lucy Boston's patchwork quilt

"His great-grandmother was sitting by the fire mending one of the old patchwork quilts. Tolly had long been familiar with the quilts, some of which were used as curtains in the living room, hanging from ceiling to floor in bulgy folds against the stone walls. Spread across her knees and rucked up round her on the floor, they were both more intimate and more intriguing. The colors and patterns were so lively in the firelight that Tolly at once sat down to enjoy them." (p. 9)

" 'Don't look for Linnet. This is a hundred and fifty years after she lived. Little girls were dressed just like their mothers only smaller, in long tight dresses.'
'I don't know what girls have,' said Tolly impatiently. 'I'll do it by magic.'
'Detectives don't use magic.'
'Water diviners do. I'll spread my hands out and wave them over the patchwork and when a finger tickles, that's it.'
Tolly fixed his face into a long-lipped solemnity that he thought suitable for water diviners, and with closed eyes he passed his fingers slowly and hesitantly over the quilt.
'What's her name?' he asked without stopping the play of his hands.
'Susan.'
'Susan, Susan, Susan, this is Tolly calling. Susan, where are you? Over to you, Susan.'
His finger came down on a patch and he opened his eyes. His great-grandmother bent down to look.
'Quite right! Not her clothes, but you've hit on her bed curtains.' "
(p. 12)

"When Tolly got into bed and drew his own patchwork quilt up to his chin, he noticed that a great many pieces were of the same materials that he had seen downstairs across his great-grandmother's knees.
'There are bits of those people everywhere,' he thought." (p. 15)

From Treasure of Green Knowe, Lucy M. Boston.

Treasure of Green Knowe

Treasure of Green Knowe, L. M. Boston.

"The fire was burning cheerfully, but over the beam on the rather smoky wall was a large clean patch where previously the oil painting of hte Oldknow family had hung. The space was partly covered up by a smaller picture that Tolly could not even bother to look at.

'Where have they gone?' he said accusingly to Mrs. Oldknow. 'Toby and Alexander and Linnet--where are they?' " (p. 6)

Tolly eagerly arrives at Green Knowe for the Easter holiday, only to discover the family painting and the children quite gone from the old house. Rather than try to re-create the charm of the tale of Tolly and his friends from long ago, Boston creates a whole new adventure for Tolly and the old house, a lovely story just as fresh and charming as The Children of Green Knowe. Granny Oldknow is considering selling the painting of Toby, Alexander and Linnet in order to pay for repairs to Green Knowe, unless Tolly can discover the mystery of missing jewels from long ago. Through Granny's stories and his own explorations, Tolly discovers two more delightful friends from the past and has a marvelous adventure. Boston is a master at spinning delightful tales without tipping into sentimentality, heavy-handedness or predictability.

More Poohsticks posts about Green Knowe, here.

The Children of Green Knowe

Le berceau (The Cradle), 1872. Berthe Morisot.

Lully Lulla, Thou little tiny child
By by, Lully Lullay.
O sisters too, how we may do
For to preserve this day
This poor youngling
For whom we sing
By by, Lully Lullay.

"Who is it?" he whispered.

"It's the grandmother rocking the cradle," said Mrs. Oldknow, and her eyes were full of tears.

"Why are you crying, Granny? It's lovely."

"It is lovely, only it is such a long time ago. I don't know why that should be sad, but it sometimes seems so."

The singing began again.

"Granny," whispered Tolly again, with his arm through hers, "Whose cradle is it? Linnet is as big as I am."

"My darling, this voice is much older than that. I hardly know whose it is. I heard it once before at Christmas."

It was queer to hear the baby's sleepy whimper only in the next room, now, and so long ago. "Come, we'll sing it too," said Mrs. Oldknow, going to the spinet. She played, but it was Tolly who sang alone, while, four hundred years ago, a baby went to sleep.

~The Children of Green Knowe, Lucy M. Boston
(p. 153-154)

The Children of Green Knowe

The toy room in The Manor in Hemmingford Grey, Cambridgeshire, author Lucy Boston's home.

With a soft purr which startled the inquisitive chaffinch up into the air, each domino in turn fell forward until all were lying flat on their white faces, showing a long ribbon of black backs.

Tolly laughed suddenly and loudly. Mrs. Oldknow looked round.

"Ah, she said, smiling, "their grandmother taught them that game. Wouldn't she be surprised when she saw it happen all by itself? That's Alexander. Linnet never could do it right."

"Aren't they teases?" said Tolly, quite comforted. "I'm going to look at their books."

(p. 84)

---

The chaffinch was curled up and fluffed out on its perch. The not-quite-ordinary mouse was there to be put under his pillow. There were all the quivering shadows thrown by the night-light, and now there was a new one. Behind Toby's sword was another larger, fiercer, man-sized sword hanging on the same nail. The books were on the table. They made mountainous steps on the sloping ceiling....When the room was comfortably full of shadow doubles of the things he liked, and his own shadow had sat up in bed and stretched a long arm to touch the outstretched nose of the shadow rocking horse, he blew out the candle by his bed and curled up to sleep.

(p. 96)

~from The Children of Green Knowe by Lucy M. Boston

The Children of Green Knowe

The Manor in Hemmingford Grey, Cambridgeshire, the real-life version of Green Knowe

Toseland stood just inside the door and felt it must be a dream.

His great-grandmother was sitting by a huge open fireplace where logs and peat were burning. The room smelled of woods and wood-smoke. He forgot about her being frighteningly old. She had short silver curls and her face had so many wrinkles it looked as if someone had been trying to draw her for a very long time and every line put in had made the face more like her. She was wearing a soft dress of folded velvet that was as black as a hole in darkness. The room was full of candles in glass candlesticks, and there was candlelight in her ring when she held out her hand to him.

"So you've come back!" she said, smiling, as he came forward, and he found himself leaning against her shoulder as if he knew her quite well.

"Why do you say 'come back'?" he asked, not at all shy.

"I wondered whose face it would be of all the faces I knew," she said. "They always come back. You are like another Toseland, your grandfather. What a good thing you have the right name, because I should always be calling you Tolly anyway. I used to call him Tolly."

(p. 11)

---

As he went along the entrance hall, past one of the big mirrors, something caught his eye. It looked like a pink hand. The glass reflected a dark doorway on the other side of the stairs. Behind the doorpost, flattened against the wall on tiptoe to make themselves as thin as they could,their faces puckered with holding their laughter, he saw Linnet and Alexander. It was Linnet's hand on the doorpost. Their black eyes were fixed on him. There was no mistake, he knew them.

"I spy!" he shouted, whisking round to chase them, but they did not run away, they simply vanished.

(p. 67)

~From The Children of Green Knowe, Lucy M. Boston

The Children of Green Knowe

There is something so satisfying about opening a beloved childhood story and reading it for my children. It's akin to the way the smell of fresh peas transports me back in time to the kitchen table, as though there's a part of me that's still sitting there snapping peas to the sound of my mother's voice. Or the way I can almost feel the sun on my shoulders and dirt under my fingernails when I taste a freshly picked warm strawberry, just like in the strawberry fields I worked in the summer I was twelve. The Children of Green Knowe, written by Lucy M. Boston, takes me back in time. I still feel that delicious little thrill of excitement, as though I've been greeted by old and beloved friend.

The Children of Green Knowe is the first in a series of books about the adventures of children on the mysterious magical estate of Green Knowe in Penny Soaky. The hero of this book is Toseland, who goes off to stay with his great-grandmother on a school holiday. He arrives during a flood and is promptly nicknamed "Tolly" by his great-grandmother, who introduces him to the delights of her wonderful old home. This book is absolutely delightful. Delightful. I still remember and love the characters Boston has created , especially those in this first book: Linnet and Toby and Alexander, Boggis, old Mrs. Oldknow, and of course Tolly himself.

I read and re-read and re-read all of the Green Knowe books when I was younger. The Children of Green Knowe was and is my very most favorite. The Green Knowe series is just wonderful genuine writing, with unique magical adventures. The books create marked contrast with the event-driven plots in many of the popular children's books being written today. They are magical in the sense that they are playful, inventive, and creative. No wizards or magic wands or abracadabras here. The magic is subtle and charming and absolutely believable. This series is one of the most overlooked underappreciated children's series around. To see pictures of The Manor, the real-life home that inspired both the setting of Boston's Green Knowe books and the illustrations drawn by her son click here, and for a short history here.

I was pregnant with the middle of the fine young gents when I discovered that the Green Knowe books had been reprinted. Loving husband and I were tired of talking about baby names. we simply couldn't agree on a name in the event that our little Ruby should turn out to be a little gent instead. "Oooh. Look, my favorite books from when I was a kid! Hey, what do you think of the name Tolly?" I asked loving husband.

My Tolly (not a "Toseland," by the way) is delighted that his name is in a real book, and scans the pages to find his name. "There it is again! T-o-l-l-y! That's my name!" and the other kids are thoroughly enjoying the story, as am I.