A Christmas Guest - Facts

 

Mrs Ellison goes to spend Christmas in a house near Romney Marsh in Kent. Romney Marsh is a sparsely populated wetland area in the counties of Kent and East Sussex in the south-east of England.

Maude's family live in Snave. Snave is a village and former civil parish in the county of Kent. Its buildings are a few houses, barns and store sheds and the church of St Augustine which holds one service per year at harvest festival.

Mrs Ellison makes reference to Julius Caesar landing on the coast of Kent. Julius Caesar's connection to Kent involves his two invasions of Britain in 55 and 54 BC, with archaeologists pinpointing his likely landing site at Pegwell Bay on the Isle of Thanet, Kent, where evidence of a large Roman fort and battle remains were found, marking Kent as the gateway for Rome's first significant interactions with Britain. 

Mrs Ellison also makes reference to William of Normandy landing at Hastings and killing King Harold. William of Normandy defeated King Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings on October 14, 1066, a pivotal event that ended Anglo-Saxon rule, making William the first Norman King of England and launching the Norman Conquest, which profoundly changed English history, language, and culture.