Wynch-on-the-Wold was a hamlet which, since the opening of the electric railway, was just beginning to turn into a suburb of Grovebury.

Close to the terminus neat villas had sprung up like mushrooms; there were a few shops and a branch post office, and a brass plate to the effect that Dr.Whittaker had consulting hours twice a week.

Tradesmen's carts drove out constantly, and the electric railway did quite a little business in the conveyance of parcels.
Wynchcote, the house where the Saxons had retired to try their scheme of retrenchment, lay at some little distance beyond the terminus, and might be considered the outpost of the new suburb.

It was a small, picturesque modern bungalow; Mr.Saxon had built it as an architectural experiment, intending it for a sort of model country cottage.

The tenants who had occupied it during the period of the war had just returned to Scotland, so, as it was vacant, it had seemed a convenient place in which to settle.