P. G. Wodehouse locations
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The following is an incomplete compendium of the fictional locations featured in the stories of P. G. Wodehouse, in alphabetical order by place name.
[edit] The Angler's Rest
The Angler's Rest is the pub frequented by irrepressible raconteur Mr Mulliner, where his drink of choice is a Hot Scotch and Lemon. The able barmaid's name is Miss Postlethwaite.
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[edit] Beckford
A school, setting of the novel A Prefect's Uncle, and several short stories.
[edit] Blandings Castle
The idyllic country house par excellence.
[edit] Blandings Parva
A small hamlet near Blandings Castle. The people of the village enjoy much revelry at the annual School Treat, held on August Bank Holiday every year in the grounds of the Castle, much to Lord Emsworth's horror (not only does his garden become an inferno of children, tents and paper bags, but he is required to wear a top hat and make a speech). Blandings Parva is also known for taking in children from London in need of fresh air, such as Gladys and her brother Ern.
[edit] Brinkley Court
The seat of Tom and Dahlia Travers, Brinkley is the setting of a great number of Wodehouse's Jeeves stories and a popular destination for Bertie Wooster, Dahlia's beloved nephew.
Brinkley is also the residence of the Travers' children Angela and Bonzo. Besides Bertie and Jeeves, it regularly hosts a number of guests, including Mr. Anstruther, Sebastian Moon, and Thomas, son of Dahlia's sister Agatha. Brinkley's butler is named Seppings and its chauffeur Waterbury, but its most famous domestic employee is, without doubt, the supremely gifted French chef Anatole.
Brinkley is said to be modeled on Lechmere House at Severn End, Hanley Castle, in Worcestershire.
[edit] Bumpleigh Hall
Bumpleigh Hall is a fictional location, being the seat of Bertie Wooster's Uncle Percy Craye, Lord Worplesdon, and Aunt Agatha, nearby the rural village of Steeple Bumpleigh, Hampshire. Usual residents include Florence Craye and Edwin Craye.
In Joy in the Morning (1946), Steeple Bumpleigh and Bumpleigh Hall are the main theatre of the action.
[edit] Chuffnell Hall
Chuffy Chuffnell's house
[edit] Chufnell Regis
The nearest village to Chuffnell Hall, visited by Bertie Wooster for a holiday in Thank You, Jeeves.
[edit] Corven Abbey
See Dreever Castle below.
[edit] Deverill Hall
The country seat of Dame Daphne Winkworth, a formidable old harridan, friend of Bertie Wooster's Aunt Agatha. It is a large, Tudor manor, located in South Hampshire, in the village of Kings Deverill and is also home to Dame Daphne's sisters, Emmeline, Charlotte, Myrtle and Harriet, as well as her pretty daughter Gertrude.
Jeeves's uncle Charlie Silversmith is butler at Deverill. Bertie Wooster has been to stay there on a couple of occasions, but is not a particularly welcome guest and is usually sent back to London prior to the arranged date of departure, due to some silly scrape he has got himself into.
[edit] Ditteredge Hall
Residence of the Glossops.
[edit] Dreever Castle
Setting of much of A Gentleman of Leisure, Dreever is a large old place in Shropshire, with heavy grey walls to defend against Welsh marauders, but a comfortable interior. It is owned by Spennie Dreever, but run by his rich uncle Sir Thomas Blunt. One of the oldest and grandest houses in England, Dreever is famed for an old ghost story, handed down from generation to generation. There is a picturesque rose-garden, and a lake with an island, ideal for young lovers.
In The Gem Collector, an earlier version of the story, the house is called Corven Abbey, and owned by former New York policeman McEachern.
[edit] The Drones Club
A fictional gentlemen's club for feckless youth, located in Dover Street, London.
[edit] Eckleton
A school, setting of the novel The Head of Kay's, and several other school stories.
[edit] The Emsworth Arms
An inn on the High Street in Market Blandings, the Emsworth serves fine ale and makes an ideal meeting-place for conspirators not wishing to be overheard, as well as providing accommodation for anyone wishing to be near Blandings Castle but lacking an invitation.
There is a busy bar downstairs, and a more genteel dining-room on the first floor, with comfortable armchairs ideal for anyone in need of a nap. The garden stretches down to the river, with many shady nooks and summer-house, seemingly ideal for conspirators not wishing to be overheard and weary minds and bodies needing rest. The proprietor, G. Ovens, makes excellent home-brewed ale.
[edit] Heath House
Home of Ukridge's Aunt Julia, Heath House is a large mansion near Wimbledon Common, set back from the road in the seclusion of spacious grounds. Ukridge lives there from time to time, in between being thrown out by his aunt for his mesdeeds. The grounds are in much demand for dancing societies and charitable fetes. Among the staff of the house have been, at times, the likes of Oakshott the butler, and "Battling" Billson, a temporary handyman, and Jimmy Corcoran is rarely welcome there.
The house is occasionally called "The Cedars" in later stories.
[edit] Ickenham Hall
The Hampshire seat of Frederick Twistleton, Lord Ickenham, where he lives much of the time, his wife Lady Jane having forbidden him to visit London lest he wreak his usual havoc. Polly Pott gambolled in the grounds as a child; there are too many statues there.
[edit] The Junior Ganymede Club
A club for "gentlemen's gentlemen", of which Jeeves is a member.
[edit] Kings Deverill
The village near Deverill Hall.
[edit] Malvern House Preparatory School
The preparatory school where Bertie Wooster, Gussie Fink-Nottle, and Kipper Herring studied in their earlier years. During their education, it was presided over by the Rev. Aubrey Upjohn.
[edit] The Mammoth Publishing Company
Owned and run by Lord Tilbury, the Mammoth is based at Tilbury House, Tilbury Street (off Fleet Street). The company's output is large and varied, from the gossipy Society Spice to the children's Tiny Tots, and includes newspapers such as the Daily Record, magazines like Home Gossip, and book imprints like the British Pluck Library, home to the adventures of Gridley Quayle, Investigator.
Employees at various times include Pyke's timid son Roderick, briefly editor of Society Spice, Percy Pilbeam, Roderick's capable assistant who later takes over as editor, Ashe Marson, the writer of the Gridley Quayle stories, Joan Valentine, sometime editress of Home Gossip, and Sam Shotter, who worked for his neighbour Mr Wrenn, editor of Pyke's Home Companion. Monty Bodkin is deputy-editor of Tiny Tots at the start of Heavy Weather, thanks to his uncle Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe meeting with Tilbury at a public dinner; Archie Gilpin was an occasional contributor. Lavender Briggs and Millicent Rigby have both acted as Tilbury's secretary.
[edit] Market Blandings
The nearest town to Blandings Castle, site of the Emsworth Arms and a host of other hostelries (such as the Beetle and Wedge, the Blue Boar, the Blue Cow, the Blue Dragon, the Cow and Grasshopper, the Goat and Feathers, the Goose and Gander, the Jolly Cricketers, the Stitch in Time, the Wheatsheaf, and the Waggoner's Rest), as well as a useful railway station, from where a fast train can get you to Paddington in under four hours.
A sleepy old place, Market Blandings is one of England's most picturesque towns, and has an air of having been the same for centuries; the lichened church has a four-square tower, the shops red roofs, and the second floors of the inns bulge comfortably outward. The most modern thing there is the moving-picture house, which calls itself an "Electric Theatre", is covered in ivy and features stone gables; the only other up-to-date location is the shop of Jno. Banks, hairdresser. The only taxi cab in town is the station taxi, driven by Mr Jno. Robinson; the chemist's is run by a Mr Bulstrode.
[edit] Market Snodsbury
A town, close to Brinkley Court. It is at the Market Snodsbury Grammar School that, in Right Ho, Jeeves, Gussie Fink-Nottle gives his immortal drunken prize-giving speech.
[edit] Marling Hall
A house in the neighbourhood of Blandings Castle, Marling is the home of Colonel Fanshawe, his wife and their attractive daughter Valerie. The butler there is a friend of Beach, and the two of them occasionally share a glass or two in the evenings. The house's coal cellar has, on at least one occasion, served as a makeshift prison.
[edit] Marvis Bay
A delightful coastal resort, with smooth firm sands and a long pier at the northern end of the beach, which provides excellent fishing. The Beach View Hotel lies just by the beach, and the Beach Theatre is not far away. Marvis is the peaceful seaside spot par excellence, the ideal place for a quiet week for those not up to the excitements of Roville
The beach is the main setting for the events of "Deep Waters" and "Fixing it for Freddie", while Marvis Bay Golf and Country Club has a charming links and a comfortable clubhouse, from where the club's Oldest Member dispenses his wisdom in the form of his inexhaustible golf stories.
Marvis Bay is variously reported to lie in Dorsetshire ("Fixing it for Freddie") and Cornwall (Uneasy Money).
[edit] Matchingham Hall
Seat of Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe, the hall neighbours Blandings Castle and lies near the village of Much Matchingham. In its grounds resides the "Pride of Matchingham", Sir Gregory's pig and rival to Lord Emsworth's mighty Empress of Blandings, and later the "Queen of Matchingham", replacement for the Pride. The telephone number there is Matchingham 8-3.
[edit] Mervo
A small Mediterranean island, the smallest independent state in the world, smaller even than Monaco. It is a sleepy little place, with an army of one hundred and fifteen, a small harbour, a small town and a few scattered fishing hamlets. The last prince, Charles, was driven out in 1886, when the place became a republic, but when Mervo is purchased by Benjamin Scobell in order to build a casino and resort, in The Prince and Betty, John Maude is revealed to be heir to the princedom.
[edit] Much Matchingham
The village adjacent to Matchingham Hall. "Beefy" Bingham inhabits the Vicarage there, the living being in the grant of Lord Emsworth, and his dog Bottles is well-known from the Blue Boar on the High Street to the distant Cow and Caterpillar on the Shrewsbury Road.
[edit] The New Asiatic Bank
An austere and serious organisation, the New Asiatic is run by John Bickersdyke. Former employees include Mike Jackson and Psmith, employed there for a spell in Psmith in the City. It has the atmosphere of a public school, with the heads of department as autocratic as masters - the Postage Dept. is run by Mr Rossiter, the Cash Dept. by Mr Waller, and the Fixed Deposits Department by a Mr Gregory. The London branch is seen as something of a training ground for new blood - once a period of probation has been completed, most employees head out East.
At some point, the bank was successfully robbed of around two million dollars' worth of transferable bonds, by a man by the name of Edward Finglass, a friend of Alexander "Chimp" Twist and Thomas "Soapy" Molloy; though Finglass escaped, his haul was eventually recovered, thanks to Sam Shotter, in Sam the Sudden.
The bank is perhaps inspired by the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, where Wodehouse himself worked for a time before his writing career took off, and is mentioned in passing in many other stories and novels.
[edit] The Pelican Club
A riotous gentlemen's club back in the nineties, the Pelican was that happy era's equivalent to the Drones. Galahad Threepwood and Uncle Fred were both prominent and popular members; others include "Dogface" Weeks, champion liar, and Galahad's friends "Plug" Basham and "Puffy" Benger.
[edit] Roville-Sur-Mer
A wild and exciting resort in the South of France. Setting of the likes of The Adventures of Sally and French Leave.
[edit] St. Austin's
A school, setting of several early shorts (many of them collected in Tales of St. Austin's), as well as Wodehouse's first published novel The Pothunters. In the Jeeves short story The Ordeal of Young Tuppy, it is revealed that Tuppy Glossop is an Old Austinian.
[edit] Sanstead House
Sanstead is a school, setting for much of the action in The Little Nugget. An imposing Georgian building in around nine acres of land, Sanstead was formerly the private home of a family called Boone, but when the family's fortunes declined and the house became too large and expensive to maintain, one Colonel Boone keenly leased the place out as a school.
The place is perfect for the purpose, with ample grounds for cricket and football, and plenty of rooms of various sizes ideal for classrooms and dormitories. Its stables, with their thick walls and iron-barred windows, have been put to use as a gymnasium, carpenter's shop and general storage area, but also make a handy fortress in event of a siege. It is two miles from the village, where the principal watering-hole is the Feathers, the barmaid of which, a Miss Benjafield, is a stately type who disapproves of Americans.
Run by the somewhat ineffectual Arnold Abney, Sanstead's staff includes the gloomy teacher Mr Glossop, White the smooth mannered butler, and Mrs Attwell the Matron, as well as a cook, an odd-job-man, two housemaids, a scullery-maid and a parlour-maid, before it is enhanced by the arrival of Peter Burns. The boys, who number some twenty-four in total, include Augustus Beckford, are augmented by the Nugget himself, Ogden Ford, who brings all manner of drama and bad behaviour to the school.
[edit] Sedleigh
A very minor school, which achieves some cricketing success thanks to the arrival of Mike Jackson and Psmith, in Mike and Psmith. Set in pretty countryside, the school has some two hundred boys. The houses, a row of three, lie across the cricket field from the main school; Outwood's, of which Mike and Psmith become members, is the middle one.
The school has a thriving archaeological society, thanks to Outwood, and also a fire brigade, run by his colleague Downing but treated as an excuse to mess around by the boys. The drainpipes are sturdy, and there is a fire bell, in an archway near the school, which proves useful to Mike on one occasion; when it is rung, the boys get to flee the building via canvas chutes.
[edit] The Senior Conservative Club
A staid and old-fashioned gentlemen's club, The Senior Conservative is a calm and quiet place with discrete staff and excellent dining. Opposite the wide windows of the lower smoking-room is an excellent flower shop, and there is a Turkish bath not twenty-five yards from the doors, in Cumberland Street.
Its numbers (increasing from three thousand, seven hundred and eighteen at the time of Psmith in the City to six thousand, one hundred and eleven by the time of Leave it to Psmith) are all respectable, mostly bald men, who look like they could be politicians or important figures in the City; they include Lord Emsworth, who joined as a country member in 1888, and Psmith, put up for the club by his father.
[edit] Steeple Bumpleigh
Steeple Bumpleigh is a fictional location, being a small village in rural Hampshire where Bertie Wooster's Uncle Percy Craye, Lord Worplesdon, and Aunt Agatha reside at Bumpleigh Hall. It is set in fields and woods, nearby the market town of East Wibley. Lord Worplesdon is also the local Judge of Peace.
In Joy in the Morning (1946), Steeple Bumpleigh and Bumpleigh Hall are the main theatre of the action.
[edit] Tilbury House
The home of the Mammoth Publishing Company lies on Tilbury Lane near Fleet Street, a narrow lane that smells somewhat of cabbage. The Mammoth's premises spill out from the main HQ at Tilbury House to various other buildings in the street. For a time, opposite Tilbury House on the fourth floor are the offices of J. Sheringham Adair, Detective, also known as Alexander "Chimp" Twist.
[edit] Totleigh Towers
Totleigh Towers is the seat of widower Sir Watkyn Bassett and his daughter Madeline Bassett.
[edit] Twing Hall
The home of the Wickhammersleys.
[edit] Valley Fields
Valley Fields is one of London's quiet, leafy suburbs, in the SE21 postal district. The setting of much of Sam the Sudden, it is home to Matthew Wrenn, whose friend Mr Cornelius is the local estate agent and historian; he has many a tale to tell of the suburb, the most exciting being that of Edward "Finky" Finglass, the notorious bank robber, who lived for a time in the house later inhabited by Sam Shotter.
In Uncle Fred in the Springtime, we learn that part of the suburb was formed from the old estate of Lord Ickenham's Uncle Willoughby, known as Mitching Hill, setting of the drama related in "Uncle Fred Flits By". It is also home to Maudie, niece of Blandings Castle butler Beach.
The suburb reappears in many non-series novels, and is apparently based on the real London suburb of West Dulwich, where Wodehouse lived in his youth while attending Dulwich College.
[edit] Wrykyn
A minor public school with a strong cricketing tradition, Wrykyn is most closely associated with Mike Jackson, hero of Mike at Wrykyn. It also features in the earlier school novels The Gold Bat and The White Feather, as well as a number of early school shorts.
The school is an imposing place, especially to new boys; the grounds are in the form of a series of terraces cut from a hill, with the school at the top, training grounds on the next step and on the next the cricket field, from the pavilion of which one can see three counties. The houses are run by the likes of Wain, Donaldson and Seymour, and the school's reputation for cricket is fearsome. The public schools "Geddington" and "Ripton" are sporting rivals.
Many characters in later works are old boys, including Ukridge, his friends Jimmy Corcoran, George Tupper, and "Looney" Coote, as well as Sam "The Sudden" Shotter and his friend Willoughby Braddock.
