The Secret Garden
Basil Crawford
The clergyman's son
A teasing boy in the clergyman's family who takes Mary in after the cholera outbreak, and gives her an unkind nickname.
Basil Crawford is the son of the English clergyman who shelters Mary after the cholera outbreak. He is mischievous, blunt and mocking, and he likes to tease. He is the child who calls her Mistress Mary, Quite Contrary.
The nickname comes from the nursery rhyme, and it stays with Mary on her journey. When Mrs. Medlock meets her in London, she greets her with the same line. He is a child who says whatever comes into his head, whether or not it hurts. He is not shown as wicked, only as careless and young, in a household that has lost its calm.
In the story
Contains spoilers.
Basil appears in Mary's short stay with the Crawfords, before she is sent to England. He teases her, and she does not know how to respond, because no one has teased her before.
On the way to Yorkshire, Mrs. Medlock quotes the rhyme and asks how her garden grows. Mary answers that she does not have a garden and that she is not contrary. By the end of the story, she has a garden, and is no longer contrary.
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