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The story’s setting is a large, old farmhouse. The location is atypical for a ghost story written at the time; however, the descriptions draw connections to life, serving Woolf’s purpose. The size of the house is hinted at by it having both an upstairs and a drawing room, typically used to entertain guests. The house’s age is not stated, but since the woman died “hundreds of years ago,” readers can infer the house is at least that old. The house has a garden, which Americans would call a lawn, in which the narrator reads and sometimes naps.
The house’s windowpanes reflect apples, roses, and leaves, suggesting that the couple live on an orchard and also grow flowers. The story reinforces this inference with the loft in which the couple stores apples. From the house, the narrator can hear the sounds of wood pigeons and a threshing machine on a neighboring farm. The threshing machine suggests grain fields. The narrator’s mention of “the Downs” situates the farm in southeast England. The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that stretch across Sussex County, where Woolf lived and wrote at times. The story also mentions candles, lanterns, and lamps, which suggests that the story may take place before rural electrification.
