Finding New Moon

Since putting up this page, I received many e-mails asking me how the house on the previous page is related to Emily's beloved New Moon. To do that, I suppose I should tell the story of how I found the house. You will see that the connection is rather fuzzy.

When we visited Park Corner's "Silver Bush" (otherwise known as the "Anne of Green Gables Museum") as part of the 1996 LMM Conference, the museum curator pointed out a small framed photo she said was New Moon. Although I didn't know it at the time, Ruth Campbell, who runs the Anne of Green Gables Museum (Silver Bush), grew up in the New Moon house, where she was told it was the prototype for "Emily of New Moon". LMM's Aunt Emily and Uncle John Montgomery owned the home at the turn of the century, where Maud visited quite often as a child (including an entire winter in her teens). Her Aunt Emily, interestingly enough, was her mother's sister, while her Uncle John was her father's brother.The house is located near Malpeque, a village in Northern PEI, west of Green Gables and near Cabot Beach Provincial Park, where much of the "Emily" series is being filmed.

After the conference, I tried hunting for the house, but had very bad directions. However, I met a fellow delegate, Esta, who knew where it was, having received directions from George Campbell(who owns Silver Bush). So, we set off along the muddy red roads to find it. The thing that suprised and disappointed me (and my friend) upon seeing the house was the lack of trees. It is surrounded by miles of plowed fields and wild grass with the amazing view of the gulf oposite. The poor house looked so solitary and desolate! For one thing, I never imagined New Moon so close to the ocean. For another, where was Lofty John's Bush, the old Orchard, or Cousin Jimmy's garden with the lost diamond?

What I came to realize is that things change in 100 years. The shore erodes, gardens die, people cut down "bushes" to make room for potato fields, and besides all that, Maud had an imagination that could supply an old orchard where ther was none. However, a picture of Maud's Aunt's house in the Selected Jouranls(#1, pg 152) shows us that not only was there an orchard, but pine trees and a little white house in what might be the garden. So, perhaps it IS New Moon. It would be lovely to know for sure.