ST MARY'S

Through the centuries, the house has had a number of distinguished owners. Of note is Hon. Algernon Bourke, owner of White's, the celebrated gentleman's club in St. James's, London, who, with his beautiful wife Gwendolen, were the originals for the characters in Oscar Wilde's famous play, The Importance of Being Earnest... In 1907, St. Mary's was sold to the wealthy socialite, Alfred Musgrave, the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story, The Musgrave Ritual... In 1946, the house was saved from demolition by Dorothy Ellis, who lived there for some thirty-five years, after which it was bought by Paul Smart, a lepidopterist and author of an encyclopaedia of butterflies.

Primary location: Bramber United Kingdom