For whatever reason of self-presentation or nostalgia, Mary Shelley here magnifies
her love of and accessibility to an untrammelled natural environment. Her Scottish
experiences occupied less than two years of her early adolescence. Prior to that time
she was brought up in Somers Town, in that day located on the edge of the London metropolis,
where she could divide her interests between the countryside to the north, upon which
her father's house looked out, and the attractions of the city. Godwin's house itself
was anything but rural, maintaining an intensely urban and intellectually sophisticated
ambience throughout Mary Shelley's youth. There, as a child, she came into contact
with dozens of the principal luminaries of British culture at the beginning of the
nineteenth century. One of these was Samuel Taylor, whom she heard recite "The Rime
of the Ancient Mariner," a poem of particular resonance for Frankenstein, where it
is quoted twice—(see I:L2:6 and I:4:7)—and frequently functions allusively.