Wendy house
A Wendy house is small play house for children. It is big enough for one or more children to go into and should not be confused with a doll's house. Size and solidity can vary from a toddler-high cheap and cheerful plastic kit to something resembling a small garden shed. Usually there is one room, a doorway with a window on either side and little or no furniture other than that which the children improvise.
The original was built for Wendy Darling in J. M. Barrie's play, Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. Wendy was shot by the Lost Boy Tootles after arriving in Neverland, so Peter Pan and the Lost Boys built a small house around her where she had fallen. It was inspired by the wash-house behind Barrie's childhood home in Kirriemuir[1] and first appeared in story form in The Little White Bird in which fairies build a house around Mamie Mannering — the prototype for Wendy — so protecting her from the cold.[2]
A prop house was created by Barrie for the first stage production of the play in 1904. It was constructed like a tent so that it could be erected quickly during a song which Wendy starts with
| “ | I wish I had a darling house The littlest ever seen, With funny little red walls And roof of mossy green.[2] |
” |
John's hat was used as a chimney and a slipper was used as a door knocker. Toy manufacturers soon created replicas of the stage Wendy house, which have become a standard toy found in British gardens ever since.[1]
[edit] South African usage
In South Africa, a Wendy house is much like a shed. In 1874, a General in the US Army had a daughter called Wendy, and built her a little house out of wood. Later on in 1919 with the 1st World War, they used the same Wendy house in concentration camps.[citation needed]
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Philippa Lewis, Everything You Can Do in the Garden Without Actually Gardening, http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=T9D7kdJdQcQC&pg=PA145
- ^ a b Michael Cordner, Peter Pan and other plays, Oxford University Press, http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=nG97v_jo08IC&pg=PA316
