Tuesday 22 December 2015

Reynard the Fox's House--a Hidden Gem in Victoria BC

As I mentioned before, all the places in my YA Dystopian novel, QUEST FOR THE ROSE, are real and in Victoria, Canada.
This is an unusual one. In fact, I don't know if it is still in existence today, as I can find no reference to it on the net.
In my book Esemeralda Midnight, the shy, nervous young heroine, meets up with an old man, Reynard the Fox, who is one of the last of the Wistren, the Wise, who were the wizards of Adanica before their powers were shattered by the incoming Sestren, a severe and oppressive religious order (but something else besides!) He invites her, against the rules of the instituation-like orphanage where she lives, to visit him at his mansion Hall i' the Wood.
   The Hall is based on a house I vitited as a young girl around Esmerelda's age. My brother worked for an English gentleman  who was a well known  merchant in town who was friends with the likes of John Wayne and Bing Crosby. He got to know my mother and seemed to like her; they both had a similar English/Irish background, and eventually he invited us out to his home. (I can't remember the road but it was very rural, with tall dark fir trees, and  not terribly far from Hatley Castle, then Royal Roads Military College.)
   I  was just discovering fantasy and I thought his place was magic. I had never seen a home like it. There were  aviaries and a waterfall and bridge, and green lawns covered in statues of Greek gods. The house was perches on raised terraces, kind of like depictions of Tolkien's Rivendell, and seemed a strange mixture of mock-Tudor, Swiss and even Chinese. Trees grew all about it, some conifer, some deciduous and  changing lovely colours in the Fall. Peacocks strutted along the roofline. Inside there was a stunning fountain made of blue tiles and then a series of dark panelled rooms, rich and mysterious .
  All thesefeatures  had a huge impression on me as a child of around 11, and Mr Reynolds himself seemed so stately and professorly, a man from another era.
  Most of the features of the house made it into my book...and physically Reynard the Fox is not unlike my brother's employer, though of course  he was not a wizard!
  I have no idea if the house still stands. It was so unique it would be a shame if it was destroyed. The owner died over 30 years ago at a ripe old age, and last I heard (in the 80's) the land was being divided and sold. The fate of the building was unknown.
  I always said if I was a billionaire I would buy the place....

Here is the only picture I have ever seen of  it, which the owner sent to my mother. It is dated 1978....
HALL I' THE WOOD, the maically-protected home of the wizard, Reynard Fox, father of Rosamunda, the Rose of the World,  missing since the Great War when the land of Adanica had its climate destroyed by the 'Holy Fire' (atom bomb) borne by the martyr St Tarcissian, and the religious order called the Sestren imposed a cruel regime of fear and punishment.
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