Noted Guests
J. R. R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings, stayed in Great Haywood during the winter of 1916/17 and in his story 'The Tale of the Sun and the Moon' (The Book of Lost Tales 1) he writes about a gnome called Gilfanon who owned an ancient house "...the House of a Hundred Chimneys, that stands nigh the bridge of Tavrobel". Tavrobel he describes as a village near the confluence of two rivers. If you stand on the Essex Bridge, you can see where the river Sow meets the river Trent, and Shugborough Hall has about 80 chimneys.
Another fantasy author, Mark Chadbourn, features Shugborough and the mysterious bas-relief on the Shepherd's Monument in his novel The Hounds of Avalon, part of The Dark Age sequence. In the novel, the gardens provide a point of access to the magical Otherworld of Celtic mythology.
Nicolas Poussin's Arcadia and the inscription also figure prominently in the fiction work by Steve Berry, The Alexandria Link. They are used to find the location of the Library of Alexandria.
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Famous quotes containing the words noted and/or guests:
“God preaches,—a noted clergyman,—
And the sermon is never long;
So instead of getting to heaven at last,
I’m going all along!”
—Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)
“The menu was stewed liver and rice, fricassee of bones, and shredded dog biscuit. The dinner was greatly appreciated; the guests ate until they could eat no more, and Elisha Dyer’s dachshund so overtaxed its capacities that it fell unconscious by its plate and had to be carried home.”
—For the State of Rhode Island, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)