Friday 9 November 2012

Was this the original of Mellor's cottage?



The photos shows the derelict gamekeeper's cottage in High Park Wood at Moorgreen. Today, apparently, it still stands but is more overgrown than shown in the picture.Several of Lawrence's early works, such as The White Peacock and 'Shades of Spring', are set in this area and involve gamekeepers, who can be seen as forerunners of Mellors in Lady Chatterley's Lover.

Lawrence must have known this cottage, which appears to have been solidly built if small, from his walks in the area, and clearly found the ambiguous social position of the gamekeeper fascinating. Both Annable in The White Peacock, and Mellors, are portrayed as men who have deliberately chosen their role, somewhat outside the class system, which they have rejected after flirting with the middle class. They are made the spokesmen of the 'natural', instinctive life, and to some extent may be seen as aspects of Lawrence's own persona.

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