Knutsford is a small English town where Elizabeth Gaskell was raised by her aunt, Mrs. Lumb, and on which her fictional village of Cranford was based.

Reconstructed several times from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, Newgate Prison in London housed many types of criminals from debtors to female/male convicts during the Victorian era. Newgate prison existed across from the Old Bailey—a criminal court. In Victorian England, Newgate prison was known for its harsh living arrangements and unsanitary conditions. Cells were packed with prisoners—up to thirty at a time—and vermin ran rampant. 

   New South Wales is a state on the South-East border of Australia. Here, the first Australian colonies were organized by British colonists. In 1770, Capt. James Cook claimed the land and named it after King George III. Initially, this land broadly covered from the Cape York Peninsula all the way to Tasmania (originally named Van Diemen's Land). These areas were separated by the Great Dividing Range, a series of mountain ranges that closely follows the coast of Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria.