[Rumil]

I've often wondered if Tolkien was influenced by the 'Arts and Crafts' artistic movement in pre World-War I Britain. This group of designers and architects built wonderful traditional-style (but with modern amenities) houses from traditional materials, stone, wood etc. and made 'rustic' furniture by hand. They disliked the way that mass production had led to the drab sameness of brick houses then springing up all over Britain. Of course the main drawback was that you needed to be rather wealthy to construct houses and furniture in this manner.

At the same sort of time there was a renewed interest in 'fairy stories', amongst the middle classes (a similar up-surge of interest occurred a few years ago in the UK). There was also a very famous photograph purporting to show 'fairies' (at the bottom of someone's garden), which has now been shown to be a fake. At the time there seems to have been a sort of UFO craze about the whole thing.

One feature of Warwick which has survived from those times is the 'pleasure gardens'. These were private walled gardens built on the outskirts of the town so that the richer town-dwellers (who lived in fairly close-packed houses in the old centre of town) could have somewhere to relax. I can imagine Tolkien being interested by the 'secret gardens' away from the hoi-polloi.

He originally thought of Warwick castle as Kor-Tirion. If I'm right I think it was still held by the Earl of Warwick in those days and was not open to the public by any means. This must have increased the mystery of the place no end.

By the way, Warwick Castle's definitely worth a visit if you happen to be in the Midlands (though admission is fairly pricey).