At the age of fourteen, the author moved away from the Forest of Dean for a life of service in London Although she hated leaving her country home, she soon became accustomed to life in the city But the strains for the continuing ill-health of one of her children, and unfriendly neighbours, began to take their toil and she returned to her beloved Forest of Dean Starting a new life in a cottage just a few miles from the forest edge, she once again enjoyed the country freedom she had known as a child