PETER PAN - JM BARRIE - MOAT BRAE

The garden at Moat Brae, open from 1 June 2019.

Moat Brae is the Georgian property in Dumfries, where the young J.M. Barrie and his friends played the games that inspired Peter Pan.



"Visitors will be able to enjoy themed interactive exhibits, reading and play areas, temporary exhibitions and a shop and café overlooking the river Nith."

Moat Brae – Where Peter Pan Began

"There will be costumed guides, discovery trails and a year-round programme of inspirational activities."

Moat Brae – Where Peter Pan Began

...

"Among the features will be the original Tinker Bell (a small bell that J.M. Barrie bought to be rung whenever his fairy character appeared in the original stage version of the story) and a spectacular dolls’ house nearly 6ft tall."



"And outside, in the grounds where JM Barrie played pirates in the 1870s, will be the Neverland Discovery Garden with:

A pirate ship
Wendy house



Mermaid’s Lagoon
A performance space … and much more.

Moat Brae – Where Peter Pan Began

"There is an attic recreation of the Darling children’s nursery, where visitors can attempt to catch Peter Pan’s shadow, or crawl through Nana’s kennel into a play theatre furnished with flamboyant dressing-up props."

JM Barrie's 'Peter Pan house' to open as children's literature hub ...

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Peter Pan is world famous.

Peter Pan, starring Philippe de Lacy 1924.

J M Barrie wrote about Moat Brae:

"When the shades of night began to fall, certain young mathematicians shed their triangles, crept up walls and down trees, and became pirates in a sort of Odyssey that was long afterwards to become the play of Peter Pan.

"For our escapades in a certain Dumfries Garden, which is enchanted land to me, was certainly the genesis of that nefarious work".

Peter and Wendy

Peter Pan began at Moat Brae, the Georgian town house in Dumfries in Scotland.

As a boy, Peter Pan's author J.M. Barrie played in the gardens of Moat Brae, the 'enchanted land'.

Philippe de Lacy in Peter Pan 1924.

J.M. Barrie based Peter Pan on Michael Llewelyn Davies.

Barrie first met Michael, and Michael's brothers, in London's Kensington Gardens.

Barrie became the boys' guardian after the early deaths of their parents, Arthur and Sylvia Llewelyn Davies.


The Davies boys: Nico (in father Arthur's arms), Jack, Peter, George, Michael (in front)

Sylvia Llewelyn Davies was Sylvia du Maurier, related to novelist Daphne du Maurier.

Lord Boothby (right)

Michael's friend at Eton and Oxford University was Robert Boothby.

Boothby once said of Michael Llewelyn Davies: "Barrie loved him with 'a great love'."

(Source: The Real Peter Pan: The Tragic Life Of Michael Llewelyn Davies - by Piers Dudgeon -dailymail )

Michael's brother Nico, who died in 1980, said that Barrie was "a lover of childhood."

Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie.

Michael

Sylvia Llewelyn Davies welcomed Barrie into the lives of her young family.

Her husband Arthur, a barrister, "found it irksome that he almost always found his children at play with 'Uncle Jim'."

(Source: The Real Peter Pan: The Tragic Life Of Michael Llewelyn Davies - by Piers Dudgeon)

J.M. Barrie playing Captain Hook with Michael Llewelyn Davies in 1905. "It was from the time of this photograph that Michael’s recurring nightmares began." dailymail

J M Barrie was married to Mary Ansell, a young actress.

Mary once said that the nearness of their house to the Llewelyn Davieses' made J M Barrie's 'philanderings' with the boys 'ever more easy'.

Mary was not happy when Barrie took Sylvia and Michael on holiday to Paris.

Mary and Sylvia's husband Arthur were left behind.

Michael's brother Nico once said that Barrie was in love with Michael, 'as he was in love with my mother'.

(Source: The Real Peter Pan: The Tragic Life Of Michael Llewelyn Davies - by Piers Dudgeon)

Barrie 

In 1904, Arthur Llewelyn Davies moved his family to Berkhamsted.

In 1907, Arthur died of cancer.

In 1909, J.M. Barrie divorced his wife Mary Ansell 'after she sought consolation in the arms of another man.'

1912: Michael with Barrie in Scotland.

Barrie began taking Michael and his brothers for annual holidays in Scotland.

1n 1910, Sylvia died from cancer.

Michael had "nightmares about water and ghosts coming through the window."

In 1913, Michael went to Eton.

Barrie began to write to him every day.

Michael 

At Eton, a boy called Roger Senhouse developed a crush on Michael.

After Eton, Michael, and Robert Boothby, went to Oxford University.

Buxton

At Oxford, Michael met the handsome Rupert Buxton.

One student said of Michael and Rupert that they were 'inseparable… a peerless couple, and everyone who knew either of them loved them'.

Another wrote that 'whoever came into contact with them recognised that they had in more than normal abundance the gift of personality. Either of them might have become an immortal genius or a martyr'.

Michael decided that eventually he wanted to study at the Sorbonne.

"He was drawing away from Barrie.

"But Barrie wouldn't let him go. He bought Michael a cottage in Sussex, but Michael wasn’t interested."

(Source: The Real Peter Pan: The Tragic Life Of Michael Llewelyn Davies - by Piers Dudgeon)

In 1921, Michael and Rupert were swimming at Sandford, on the Thames, 'a blackspot for swimming accidents'.

Both Michael and Rupert were drowned.

The coroner's conclusion was that Michael had drowned accidentally, and that Rupert had drowned trying to save him.

Michael Llewelyn Davies - Wikipedia

Have a look at "Neverland: J.M. Barrie, The Du Mauriers, and the Dark Side."