Shelley's Cottage is a Grade II listed early 19th-century large cottage in west

Englefield Green Englefield Green is a large village in the Borough of Runnymede, Surrey, England, approximately west of central London. It is home to Royal Holloway, University of London. The village grew from a hamlet in the 19th century, when much of Egham ( ...

, Surrey,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

within 100 metres of

Windsor Great Park Windsor Great Park is a Royal Park of , including a deer park, to the south of the town of Windsor on the border of Berkshire and Surrey in England. It is adjacent to the private Home Park, which is nearer the castle. The park was, for man ...

marking the start of Berkshire.

Physical environment

The two-storey cottage dates from c. 1800 and is built from red brick with a low-pitched slate roof. It has been extended with matching materials and in similar styles and today has a small garden relative to the average along the lane. The cottage is in the west of Englefield Green, in a plot screened behind others and tall trees that is, at about 100 metres east, close to

. It is in the

Borough of Runnymede The Borough of Runnymede is a local government district with borough status in the English county of Surrey. It is a very prosperous part of the London commuter belt, with some of the most expensive housing in the United Kingdom outside centr ...

, Surrey which as part of Englefield Green which in the early 19th century formed the uplands of the extensive parish of

Egham Egham ( ) is a university town in the Borough of Runnymede in Surrey, England, approximately west of central London. First settled in the Bronze Age, the town was under the control of Chertsey Abbey for much of the Middle Ages. In 1215, Magna ...

centred on a small market town east, today a suburban town. This neighbourhood was widely known by a lesser used name, Bishopsgate, in Shelley's time referring to the east gate of the monarch's own landscape park in southern England. Grade II listing The cottage is situated at the end of an unnamed road that adjoins Wick Lane. The road is believed to be private, its residents generally unwelcoming of visitors wishing to view the property, even for research purposes.

The Shelleys' two-year tenure

Background

It is named after

Romantic poet Romantic poetry is the poetry of the Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. It involved a reaction against prevailing Enlightenment ideas of the 18t ...

Percy Bysshe Shelley, who lived at the cottage with his wife

Mary Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel '' Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an early example of science fiction. She also ...

('' née'' Godwin) from August 1815 to May 1816. The Shelleys were able to rent the Bishopsgate cottage after a revival in Percy's finances due to the death of his grandfather, Sir Bysshe Shelley. After a holiday in

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paig ...

on a sheltered bay in the south-west coast, they came to live at the cottage.

Influences and events during this period

Little is known about this period in Mary's life, since her journal from May 1815 to July 1816 is lost but here, Percy wrote the poem '' Alastor''; and on 24 January 1816, Mary gave birth to their second child, William, named after her father and soon nicknamed "Willmouse". In her novel ''

The Last Man ''The Last Man'' is an apocalyptic, dystopian science fiction novel by Mary Shelley, first published in 1826. The narrative concerns Europe in the late 21st century, ravaged by a mysterious plague pandemic that rapidly sweeps across the enti ...

'', she later imagined Windsor as a Garden of Eden.Sunstein, 101–103.

Notes

References

* Seymour, Miranda. ''Mary Shelley''. London: John Murray, 2000. . * Sunstein, Emily W. ''Mary Shelley: Romance and Reality''. 1989. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991. . {{Percy Bysshe Shelley Houses completed in 1800 Grade II listed houses Grade II listed buildings in Surrey Houses in Surrey