The Secret Garden
Archibald Craven
Mary's uncle
The grieving master of Misselthwaite, who locked his late wife's garden ten years ago and has been wandering Europe ever since.
Archibald Craven is Mary's uncle, Colin's father and the master of Misselthwaite Manor. He is brooding, reclusive and weighed down by guilt and grief since the death of his wife Lilias. He locked the door to her garden, dug a hole and buried the key.
Craven is not unkind. When Mary is brought to his study, he admits he forgot her and asks if she wants anything. But he cannot bear to look at his son, who reminds him of the wife he lost. Beneath all that sorrow is a deep love and a capacity for redemption. His house is run around his grief, with rules he leaves others to enforce, and he spends his years away from it. Readers who come to know him will find a man more lost than harsh.
“Come here. You are very small, child.”
In the story
Contains spoilers.
He gives Mary permission to have a bit of earth, not knowing what it will mean. Then he travels, and in the Austrian Alps he calls himself a broken man carrying a dead heart. By a mountain lake he feels a wave of peace and hears his wife's voice say, in the garden. A letter from Susan Sowerby tells him to come home.
He returns to Misselthwaite, walks to the locked gate and hears children laughing inside. Colin runs out and crashes into his arms. Archibald sees his wife's gray eyes in a straight, strong boy, and follows Colin into the garden. They walk together into the manor, as the household watches in amazement.
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