Miss Ansty
For one evening, nobody is waiting for her to tick an answer.
Look closer at the illustration ↗Miss Ansty is the schoolmistress whose schoolroom Mr Corvill borrows. She has spent the afternoon hearing accounts of places nobody in the room had visited. In the evening she asks if she may watch him try his newly coloured slides.
She brings the only comfortable chair in the schoolroom into the middle of the floor and moves it the width of one floorboard when asked. Her hat, with its single tall feather, lies on a desk. She does not want the names of the principal buildings unless something depends on them.
She is good at finding the way into a picture: a post, a landing, a door. She is also content to leave some things unasked. Behind a painted door, there might be a room or a passage, and she lets that remain open.
People they know
Mr Corvill · From the illustrated world of Candlebury Mr Corvill
The showman using her schoolroom
Miss Ansty lends the schoolroom and watches Mr Corvill try his newly coloured slides before the public show.
Places in their stories
Little Tallowmere
A village green, pale stone, and an inn just beyond.
Little Tallowmere schoolhouse, from The Lantern Show.
Little Tallowmere schoolroom
Miss Ansty’s schoolroom, with a lime tree outside and a lantern show after lessons.
Stories
The Lantern Show at Little Tallowmere
After the schoolroom’s bustle, Miss Ansty and Mr Corvill have time for a smaller lantern show of their own.
With Miss Ansty, Mr Corvill