Crome Yellow

During the war, old Mrs. Budge, who lives in a neighboring country house, collected thousands of peach stones and sent them to the British government. She tells Denis about this during the Crome Charity Fair, explaining that early in the war, the Daily Mirror said that the government needed peach stones for an undisclosed reason. Having 36 peach trees in her walled garden, Mrs. Budge began eating peaches by the dozen to collect the stones. She kept detailed records of how many peaches she ate, even noting that when she ate fewer in 1917, it was largely because three of her gardeners were drafted. However, between 1916 and late 1918, she ate almost 8,000, which ultimately led to health problems. That Mrs. Budge never finds out what the government does with the peach stones points to the strange and often pointless ways the British aristocracy participated in the war effort. Similarly, Mrs. Budge’s lack of curiosity represents the elite class’s disengagement from the realities of the rest of the world.

Animals appear intermittently throughout the novel, and while they do not have a single symbolic function, they allow various characters to reveal certain facets of their personalities. For example, Henry Wimbush takes great pride in showing off the animals at Crome’s farm, but he is not actually a farmer or depend on farming to support himself financially.