Froniga's Cottage & Garden

Based on Goudge's Rose Cottage, Peppard Common

Froniga's cottage illustrated for the cover of the 1958 US edition of The White Witch by Elizabeth Goudge.

“The nearest cottage (to Pack ‘n Prime lane) was Froniga's, for she lived at the edge of the village looking out over the wide plain as a cottage at the land's end looks out over the sea. Her front door opened into the small strip of flower garden which separated her cottage from the heath upon the east and the lane upon the north, but to the south there was an herb garden and small orchard, and (Yoben) made his way toward the gap in the bramble hedge and the stile that gave access to the orchard.

Only Froniga's better-dressed callers entered her cottage by way of the lane and the front door. Vagabonds like himself came in through the gap in the hedge…”

🍂 The White Witch by Elizabeth Goudge

There is a very close connection between Froniga’s cozy cottage and Goudge’s own Rose Cottage. They are in fact, the same place.

“The White Witch is Jessie’s book, commemorating the spells she wove over the garden,” (Goudge) said. It commemorates too Rose Cottage which “took charge of me and made me write about itself.” ¹

Today we will take a close look at Rose Cottage and how it inspired Goudge’s novel, The White Witch.

The White Witch by Elizabeth Goudge

“Froniga was a noted gardener and herbalist, skilled in all healing arts, with fingers that were not only green but enchanted, and her small domain always seemed to (Yoben) almost intolerably prolific. He was, he supposed, a little jealous of her passionate love of plants. He came out from the shadows of the orchard into the herb garden and the smell of wet lavender and rosemary, germander and mint geranium nearly knocked him over.”

🍂 The White Witch by Elizabeth Goudge

Connection to Rose Cottage

Froniga's cottage illustration was drawn from Goudge's Rose Cottage (right from 1950's).