George Eliot: Arbury Hall, Warwickshire Born Mary Ann Evans, George Eliot grew up close to Arbury Hall, where her father was employed as land agent. It provided her with a rich seam of material which she exploited in three Warwickshire stories, Scenes of Clerical Life. Later novels also drew on life at Arbury. Eliot was intrigued by the history of the house and its Gothic remodelling, which took more than 50 years to complete. As a child, she would accompany her father to the hall, where she had free run of the rooms and browsed in the library.