Anne of Green Gables Encyclopedia Page - B

People

Barry, Minnie May

Barry, Josephine

Bell, Mary Alice

Bell, Mr. [Superintendant]

Bell, Mrs. [Superintendant]

Bell, Mrs. Jasper

Bell, Robert Mrs.

Bentley, ...Mr.

Blair, William J.

Winnie Adella Blair

Blewett, Mrs. Peter

Blythe, Gilbert

Boulter, Tillie

Boulter, Thomas

Boyd, Professor

Bradley, Lauretta

Places

Diana Barry: When Anne of Green Gables begins, she is about eleven years old. She received her name at her birth from a schoolmaster boarding at the Barry's. "She was a very pretty little girl, with her mother's black eyes and hair, and rosy cheeks, and the merry expression which was her inheritance from her father." Mrs. Barry complains that Diana reads too much. "Diana always laughed before she spoke." Gilbert Blythe has called her a crow a dozen times because of her hair. She has cousins in Newbridge. Diana is about one month older (Diana was born in February) than Anne. Anne thinks Diana has soulful eyes and wishes she did too. Diana is a member of the Avonlea Village Improvement Society and serves as treasurer.
AoGG:Chapters 2, 8, 12-38
AoA:Chapters 2-4, 6, 8-10
Minnie May Barry: Minnie May is Diana's sister who gets croup. Anne comes over and gives ipecac to help her breathe. This occurs when Minnie May is three years old.
AoGG:Chapters 18, 30-31
Mr. Barry: Mr. Barry is Diana's father. He takes Diana and Anne to the White Sands Concert. He agrees to rent the farm after Matthew dies. Not much is described about Mr. Barry. He is frequently seen as the one transporting Diana and Anne to different places like his aunt, Miss Josephine Barry. Mr. Barry will tak e over the farm once the crop is in.
AoGG:Chapters 2, 8, 23, 28-29, 38
AoA:Chapters 1, 10
Mrs. Barry: Diana Barry's mother who according to Marilla is a very particular woman. "She was a tall, black-eyed, black-haired woman, with a very resolute mouth. She had the reputation of being very strict with her children." She also was a little more strict ab out alcohol. "Mrs. Barry was a woman of strong prejudices and dislikes, and her anger was of the cold, sullen sort which is always hardest to overcome." She forbade Diana from being friends with Anne after Anne accidentally gave her currant wine, and Dian a got intoxicated. After Anne helped Minnie May Barry recover from the croup, Mrs. Barry relented the punishment and allowed the girls to associate.
AoGG:Chapters, 8, 12, 16-21, 23, 28, 30, 37
Josephine Barry: Diana's great-aunt who lives in Charlottetown who gets overwhelmed by Diana and Anne after their return from the Avonlea Debating Club concert on Diana's birthday. She is seventy, and "she's awfully prim and proper" and "thin, prim and rigid." She is also rich. She was about ready to leave the Barry residence when Anne apologized to her for leaping on her. Miss Barry took a liking to Anne and stayed at Orchard Slope. She was "amused" by the stories that Anne and Diana sent her from their Story Club. It puzzled them because they sent along the most pathethic stories. "Miss Barry was a rather selfish old lady, if the truth must be told, and had never cared much for anybody but herself. She valued people only as they were of service to her or amused her."
AoGG:Chapters 19, 25-26, 29, 32, 34-36
Alice Bell: Alice Bell is sixteen and already wears her hair up, but Anne mentions that Alice has a crooked nose. Anne would like to compare her nose with Alice's but realizes it is vanity to do that.
AoGG:Chapter 26
Andrew Bell: The big woods of Andrew Bell's property shadows Violet Vale.
AoGG:Chapter 15
Annetta Bell: One of Anne's students at the Avonlea school. Anne sees her as "a pale little thing, with smooth ripples of fine silky, fawn-colored hair flowing over her shoulders, ..." Annetta Bell's parents hauled their house 50 yards and placed themselves in the Avonlea school district instead of the Newbridge district.
AoA:Chapter 5
Esther Bell: She puts down 50 cents for A.V.I.S. to re-shingle and paint the Avonlea hall after half an hour of detailing her aches and pains to Anne and Diana because she might not be around the following year to give them anything.
AoA:Chapter 6
Julia Bell: Her name was written with Gilbert Blythe's on the school porch wall under a "Take Notice" sign. She has a lot of freckles. When Anne came back to school, Julia copied carefully on a piece of pale pink paper, scalloped on the edges, the following effusion:
TO ANNE

When twilight drops her curtain down
And pins it with a star
Remember that you have a friend
Though she may wander far
She and Josie Pye stopped speaking to each o ther after the Avonlea Concert "because Josie Pye had told Bessie Wright that Julia Bell's bow when she got up to recite made her think of a chicken jerking its head, and Bessie told Julia. She seconds the motion to have A.V.I.S. re-shingle and paint the Avonlea hall.
AoGG:Chapters 15, 17, 24, 26, 29
AoA:Chapter 6
Mary Bell: On Anne's first day of teaching the Avonlea school, Anne figured out that the Donnell girl was sitting with Mary.
AoA:Chapter 5
Mary Alice Bell: The only mention is that Anne heard Mary Alice use the word "scrumptous" at the Sunday School picnic.
AoGG:Chapter 14
Mr. Bell: Matthew bought a calf from Mr. Bell that he gave to Anne.
AoA:Chapters 1-2
Mr. [Superintendant] Bell: Mr Bell is the Sunday School superintendant. Anne found him a very nice man but not a kindred spirit when she was visited by him after she broke her ankle. He took first prize for a pig in the Charlottetown Exhi bition.
AoGG:Chapters 21, 23, 29, 31
Mrs. [Superintendant] Bell: Besides being obviously being married to the Sunday-school superintendant, she was going to make ice cream along with Rachel Lynde for the Sunday-school picnic at Harmon Andrews's field.
AoGG:Chapter 13
Mrs. Jasper Bell: She was part of the Aids Society who noticed that Davy Keith had called his sister, Dora outside. Her family was said to be the only one in which accidents did not occur.
AoA:Chapter 8
Lawrence Bell: "Mr. Lawrence Bell said he would whitewash his barns if nothing else would please them [A.V.I.S.] but he would not hang lace curtains in his cowstable windows.
AoA:Chapter 6
Myrtle Bell: Mrs. Lynde referred to Myrtle as a "blighted thing." Ruby Gillis guesses "it was because her young man had gone back on her."
AoGG:Chapter 30
Robert Bell: His family who lives up the road from Mrs. Rachel Lynde is the first to hear that Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert are adopting a boy. Before Anne comes home from Queen's, Robert Bell and his family sell their farm (located on the west side of the "Cuthbert place") to J. A. Harrison and move to Charlottetown.
AoGG:Chapter 1
AoA:Chapter 1
Mrs. Robert Bell: When Rachel Lynde visits Mr. Harrison's house, she states that "it was a mercy poor Mrs. Robert Bell was safe in her grave, for it would have broken her heart to see the state of her house in which she used to take so much pride."
AoA:Chapter 1
William Bell: At this point, the only mention is that Anne and Diana plan to build a playhouse in his birch grove which they call Idlewild. The little birch grove did not last too long. Mr. Bell "ruthlessly" cut it down one Spring.
AoGG:Chapters 13, 20, 28
Mr. Bentley: He was Avonlea minister for 18 years until leaving one year after Anne came to Avonlea. He was a widower when he came, and he left a widower even though gossip married him to one person or another. He is referred to as "old." He resigned in February after Anne came to Avonlea. Anne thought he had no imagination.
AoGG:Chapters 20-21
Dr. Blair: When Minnie May Barry came down with the croup, Diana told Anne that Dr. Blair "went to town".
AoGG:Chapter 18
Dan Blair: He is canvassed by Anne and Diana for the re-shingling and painting of the Avonlea hall. He lives along the Newbridge road, and everyone feels that his wife dominates over him even requiring him to get her permission before getting his hair cut. They caught him trying to bake a cake for his wife's tea and not doing the best job at it to say the least. Anne and Diana kindly helped them and he gave them a contribution of 4 dollars.
AoA:Chapter 6
William J. Blair: Owns a store in Carmody. For the Cuthberts, going to Blair's story was like religion or politics. He also tells Anne at the end of Anne of Green Gables that she can have the Carmody school. Anne's brown gloria dress which was picked out by Mrs. Lynde came Blair's store.
AoGG:Chapters 1, 18, 25, 38
Winnie Adella Blair: "Winnie Adella Blair of Carmody was to sing a Scottish ballad" at a benefit concert at the White Sands hotel for the Charlottetown ho spital.
AoGG:Chapter 33
Mrs. Peter Blewett: Marilla regards Mrs. Blewett as a "small, shrewish faced woman without an ounce of superflouous flesh on her bones." She is known to be a "terrible worker and driver." Mrs. Blewett is interested in adopting Anne to care for her large family, but Maril la feels pangs at her heart and decides to take Anne back to Green Gables before making a final decision about what to do with Anne. She lets Gilbert Blythe know that Andrew Spencer doesn't approve of Gilbert's methods.
AoGG:Chapter 6
AoA:Chapter 7
Gilbert Blythe: The first mention of Gilbert by Diana has her calling him "aw'fly handsome" and that he teases the girls a lot. Anne notices that his name is written with Julia Bell's on the school porch wall under a "Take Notice" sign. His father was sick four years before, and since they moved to Alberta for three years, Gilbert hardly had time to do any studying. "He was a tall boy, with curly brown hair, roguish hazel eyes and a mouth twisted into a teasing smile." His family is the only one "where strawberry apples grew,...on the other side of the Lake of Shining Waters. His family is known as a Grit. Gilbert was also part of the Queen's class at Avonlea. At the beginning of Anne of Avonlea, he is going to be teaching at White Sands. He belongs to the Avonlea Village Improvement Society as president.
AoGG:Chapters 15-19, 25, 28, 30-38
AoA:Chapters 1, 4, 6-7, 9
John Blythe: Gilbert's father, John, and Marilla were once really good friends but quarreled at one point, and Marilla never forgave him. Marilla says that "People called him my beau."
AoGG:Chapter 37
Katie Boulter: When Anne came back to school, Katie "gave her a perfume bottle to keep slatewater in,..."
AoGG:Chapter 17
Levi Boulter: Levi has a "dreadful old house" on his upper farm that the Avonlea Village Improvement Society would like to have pulled down. Rachel Lynde agrees that it has been an eyesore for years. He insisted that A.V.I.S. would want everyone to "pull down his house and rebuild it after plans approved by the society."
AoA:Chapters 1-2, 6
Tillie Boulter: The first mention of Tillie is that she tells Anne that Mr. Phillips, the schoolmaster is "DEAD GONE" on Prissy Andrews. Tillie let Anne "wear her bead ring" the first day of school in the afternoon. She also takes Anne's side (along with other Avonlea school students) when telling Rachel Lynde about the incident when Anne gets unfairly punished by being late back to school after dinner.
AoGG:Chapter 15
Sam Boulter: Sam had "sassed" Mr. Phillips" in class and Mr. Phillips whipped him and Sam's father came down to the school and dared Mr. Phillips to lay a hand on one of his children again.
AoGG:Chapter 16
Thomas Boulter: He refuses to give anything to A.V.I.S. to re-shingle and paint the Avonlea hall because when the hall was built 20 years previously, they did not follow his recommendation of where it should be built.
AoA:Chapter 6
Professor Boyd: Moody Spurgeon MacPherson brings home from Queen's a book of Professor Boyd's for Anne.
AoA:Chapter 7
Lauretta Bradley: When Anne was invited to the manse for tea with Mrs. Allan, she was joined by Lauretta who was from the White Sands Sunday-school. "...she was a very nice little girl. Not exactly a kindred spirit, you know, but still very nice" was Anne's feelings about Lauretta. Lauretta had to leave early because her sister recited at the White Sands Hotel that night. The concerts given by Americans every fortnight benefit the Charlottetown hospital.
AoGG:Chapter 22
Jerry Buote: Matthew figures on hiring little Jerry Buote when he is over at Green Gables. He comes from the "Creek". Jerry "said she [Anne] talked all the time to herself or to the trees and flowers like a crazy girl."
AoGG:Chapters 4, 11, 14, 16, 21, 25

Barry's Pond: Barry's pond is below Orchard Slope. Anne refers to it as the "Lake of Shining Waters".
Below them was a pond, looking almost like a river so long and winding was it. A bridge spanned it midway and from there to its lower end, where an amber-hued belt of sand hills shut it in from the dark blue gulf beyond, the water was a glory of many shifting hues--the most spiritual shadings of crocus and rose and ethereal green, with other elusive tintings for which no name has ever been found. Above the bridge the pond ran up into fringing groves of fir and maple and lay all darkly translucent in their wavering shadows. Here and there a wild plum leaned out from the bank like a white-clad girl tiptoeing to her own refelction. From the marsh at the head of the pond came the clear, mournfully-sweet chorus of the frogs.
Orchard Slope sits on a slope beyond the pond.
AoGG:Chapters 2, 5, 14
Beechwood: Miss Josephine Barry's mansion. "It was quite a fine old mansion, set back from the street in a seclusion of green elms and branching beeches." Anne while at Queen's generally ate her Sunday dinners there and went to church with Miss Barry.
AoGG:Chapters 29, 32, 34-35
Birch Path: The name given by Diana Barry.
It was a little narrow, twisting path, winding down over a long hill straight through Mr. Bell's woods, where the light came down sifted through so many emerald screens that it was a flawless as the heart of a diamond. It was fringed in all its length with slim young birches, white-stemmed and lissom boughed; ferns and starflowers and wild lilies-of-the-valley and scarlet tufts of pigeon berries grew thickly along it; and always there was a delightful spiciness in the air and music of bird calls and the murmur and laugh of wood winds in the trees overhead. Now and then you might see a rabbit skipping across the road if you were quiet--..."
Anne regards it as "one of the prettiest places in the world." In October, when Miss Stacy first came, "The Birch Path was a canopy of yellow and the ferns were sear and brown all along it." Anne and Diana would go to school nearly every day by the Birch Path.
AoGG:Chapters 15, 17, 24, 26, 30
AoA:Chapters 4-5, 10
Bolingbroke: Anne was born in Bolingbroke, Nova Scotia to Bertha and Walter Shirley and lived there until she moved with Mr. and Mrs. Thomas to Marysville.
AoGG:Chapter 5
Bonny: The name that Anne gives to the apple-scented geranium that sits on the windowsill the morning after she arrives at Green Gables.
AoGG:Chapters 4, 7, 11
Bright River: Bright River is where Matthew Cuthbert travels to meet a little boy who he and Marilla are going to adopt. It is about eight miles from Avonlea.
AoGG:Chapters 1-2, 31-32

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All citations in this file come from either Anne of Green Gables or Anne of Avonlea.

Copyright © 1995-1999 Thomas P. Grelinger. All Rights Reserved.

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Last Modified: 18 Oct 1999