Donnithorne Chase

Donnithorne Chase,The Donnithorne estate at Hayslope, noted for its fine woods. The House is called the "Abbey". "The house would have been nothing but a plain square mansion of Queen Anne's time, but for the remnant of an old abbey to which it was united at one end, in much the same way as one may sometimes see a new farmhouse rising high and prim at the end of older and lower farm-offices. The fine old remnant stood a little backward and under the shadow of tall beeches." The house and the woods of the Chase are the scene of several of the main events of the story. Arthur Donnithorne's coming-ofage festivities are held there, Arthur and Hetty meet in the woods and the little Hermitage, the fight between Arthur and Adam Bede takes place there, and after Hetty's trial it is in the Chase and the Hermitage that Arthur and Adam meet again and are reconciled. The original of Donnithome Chase was Wooton Hall, near Ellastone, the estate of Francis Parker Newdigate, on which George Eliot's father, Robert Evans ("Adam Bede") began his career as land agent. Another house near Ellastone, Calwich Abbey, has sometimes been suggested as the original, possibly merely because of its name. Wooton Hall is a low stone mansion built about 1730. In 1766 J. J. Rousseeau stayed there.

<em>Adam Bede</em>

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