# Mr. and Mrs. Anstruther — Short Fiction character guide

> Mr. and Mrs. Anstruther in Short Fiction by M. R. James.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Mrs. Anstruther, Mr. Anstruther

**First appearance:** 0012-the-rose-garden

## Snapshot

A country couple who set out to plant a rose garden on a dank, forgotten clearing and find the ground has other plans for them.

## Who they are

Mrs. Anstruther is a stately, self-described great gardener with firm opinions about where roses ought to go; Mr. Anstruther is her obliging husband, more inclined to defer to Collins than to argue. Their chosen site, a dark clearing bounded by box and laurel with a rotten oak post at its center, is exactly the sort of place a gardener should avoid, and Collins knows it. Their insistence on clearing it anyway sets the story's quiet machinery in motion, and their marriage's small frictions give the haunting a domestic texture.

## In the story

### [The Rose Garden](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_35_se/chapters/the-rose-garden)

The couple experiences a shared nightmare and a haunting vision in the rose garden.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_35_se/characters/mr_and_mrs_anstruther
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_35_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_35_se/characters