Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. In the first of eight first-hand accounts of the story of Merravay, we meet the Elizabethan apprentice, Jon Borage. Taken from school by his uncle after his father's death, Jon was not a happy person in his teenage years because he was inclined to bookishness and wanted to work in that area. Unlike all the other narrators in the book he never actually lived in Merravay itself - what was his connection to it?
2. What was the name of the girl who married Tom Rowhedge, but whose first child was fathered by Jon Borage?
3. Did Queen Elizabeth visit Merravay?
4. Tom and Elizabeth's first child, Thomas, was to have only one child, and it was this person who was branded as a witch during the Civil War. What was this person's name?
5. For which side did Charles Rowhedge fight in the Civil War?
6. Phyl Whymark, whose son was the natural child of Tom Rowhedge's grandson, was to buy Merravay after the Civil War for a very reasonable sum, but when the King returned she was faced with a situation where she had to buy it again, this time from the rightful owner, Charles Rowhedge. How did she find the money?
7. In trying to be fair to her granddaughters, Phyl wrote a complicated Will which effectively caused misery for her family for some years after her death. This was to be witnessed at first hand by the governess who came to live at Merravay in the early Georgian era. What was her name?
8. Phyl's only grandson, Johnny, was married to Lady Rosemary, while only one of his three sisters married and left the house. Lady Rosemary was independently wealthy through the inheritance from her uncle - but how had he made his fortune?
9. With the death of Roger Whymark, the generational line living at Merravay was broken. The Whymarks built the New House at New Holding next to Merravay, and the house was put up for sale. Being a large house with comparatively little land, it faced the same lack of interest as in the years following the Civil War, but was eventually bought by a man who made a fortune in which country?
10. George Sandell tells the story of a chapter of his life, when he lived under his father's thumb, and how he saw his sister forced into marriage with a man very much her senior. The combined experience of life with father, and what little instruction he received when at school were to shape his personality as an adult. How would his view of life best be described?
11. Charlotte Booth was sent to Merravay, to her uncle Alan, in the Victorian era, because she had made herself ill over a failed love affair. What connection did Charlotte have to Sandell, who bought Merravay some years before?
12. The section of the book written in the first person by Charlotte Booth tells the story of the haunting of Merravay and the surrounding area. Local tales laid the blame on the witch of the Civil War times, but we are to find that the ghost is actually someone else. Who is it?
13. Merravay was inherited by Rupert and Charlotte's son, Booth. Having had six sons altogether, it was surprising that between them they managed only two granddaughters for the couple. Booth willed the house and contents between them, but the inheritor of the house was not best pleased with the inheritance. After some years of attempting to sell it, she finally did so just before WWI, netting a sum which she originally hoped to inherit from her uncle. How much was this?
14. Merravay was sold to a breaker, but it was not destroyed as the war started. The book explains how the house went from owner to owner for many years, until a young family bought it just after the second world war. They tried all sorts of things to make a living, from dogs to goats and bees to mushrooms. Eventually they opened the house as a hotel, but an encounter with the ghost destroyed that endeavour. What project did they try after their hotel business was destroyed by the journalist?
15. Thomas Anderton bought the house from the Stamfords, and it was likely that he was a direct descendent from Charles Rowhedge who left the country after the Civil War. The book ends with his meeting and coming to admire the descendant of another character in the story - who was this young woman?
Source: Author
ArleneRimmer
This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor
MotherGoose before going online.
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