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Many of the locations for the Deptford
Mice trilogy are
real places. If you look carefully behind the branches, bricks and
flagstones, you might just catch a glimpse of The Green Mouse's
realm.....
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In the past, Greenwich
was known as the Greenreach or Grinuvicia. It was a perfect
location for many of the dramatic events which occur in both
"The Deptford Mice" and "The Deptford Histories". The park
is an ancient site, swamped with history, boasting Roman remains
and burial mounds.
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The gateway to the
old church of St Nicholas is guarded by two stone skulls.
It is within one of these crumbling sculptures that the spirit
of Bauchan, the mischievous member of the Raith Sidhe is imprisoned,
awaiting the time of his next summoning.
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The Thames is a character
in its own right and features in all three of "The
Deptford Mice". Twit is flown above and into it by the bats,
Jupiter's carcass is flushed from the sewers into its wide
expanse (before it rejects him) and the city rats swim through
it to Deptford.
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The Cutty Sark is
an old tea clipper in which Thomas Triton the midshipmouse
dwells with his wife Gwen. The ship will always be remembered
by the mice of Deptford, for the last battle with Jupiter's
spectral army took place on board and it is venerated by them
because it was there that the Green Mouse appeared.
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Local legend claims
that, beneath the heath's empty stretch of land, hundreds
of plague victims are interred. It was to this place that
Morgan was directed by Jupiter and where Thomas and Twit witnessed
the terrifying ceremony which followed.
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Upon the dome of
this building, Oswald and Audrey finally confronted the
spectre of Jupiter, yet only one of them returned. Somewhere,
below the observatory hill, lies the Starwife's realm but
her squirrel sentries are always on duty.
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This ancient tree was
grown from the very acorn in which Ysabelle imprisoned the
infernal spirit of Hobb. For many centuries the Great Oak
stood, watching the history of London unfurl beneath its boughs.
Elizabeth I danced around it and in later years when it became
hollow the massive trunk was used as a lock up by the park's
police.
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| Eventually, however, a great gale
ripped the tree from the earth and now its slowly rotting remains
are fenced in by a railing. Remember, so long as the smallest
part of the Great Oak still exists, Hobb cannot return. |
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In the dome of the
cathedral, the bats hold their secret councils and the four
elders sit in wisdom. They were there before the Great Fire,
in the towering steeple of the old, medieval cathedral in
the time when Hrethel ruled them with the aid of his Great
Book of Mystery.
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| The chamber of Hrethel still exists,
deep down, below the foundations, through the layers of ash.
When his followers finally discovered his treachery, he crawled
into that bolt hole and perished, but not before cheating them
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The old empty power
station was the place where Jupiter's vengeful spirit made
its abode and was turned into a cathedral of cold. The great
building no longer exists, for it was destroyed in the calamitous
events of that time.
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©
1987 Robin Jarvis. All rights reserved
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