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Home to Snodrog and the Flimsies and probably everyone else. Described as having "rotting crabapple trees and quaking aspens that were dying of Parkinson's disease" [The Pedant and the Shuffly, 7, 17, 40]. We won't hazard a guess as to whether this make-believe-land was modeled on any specific locale but it does feature a few prominent locales (as well as some possible inhabitants).
Sir Bertram comes saw a crag "rising authoritatively out of the cornfields." Atop it stood Charnel House, a crumbling fortress "which hung perilously out over the abyss below and occasionally dropped pieces of itself into the ravine" [32-3]. The owner - or at least occupier of the estate - is described as a "short man in a shedding mohair ulster," or belted overcoat.
The term charnel house is fairly common in European graveyards. It was obvious that land would eventually run out with permanent burials so, Bowen explains, every few years everyone got dug up and what was left - usually only the bones - was moved to the area charnel house. There isn't one in particular John's referring to, of course.
"He just wanted to give the estate a name that was moldy and sinister, and since estates in England often have names that end in 'House,' this was a good fit." Bowen adds that the house 'rising authoritatively out of the cornfields' may be taken as evidence that John was thinking of a rural setting. "Cornfields were ubiquitous between South Bend and Gary, but Gary itself certainly had none. The soul shudders to think what crops might have sprung from such an abomination."
Sir Bertram wanders the Hagway road after being threatened by Snodrog: "It seemed much longer than it was because it wound through country vaguely reminiscent of northern Indiana" [30-1].
Hag seems to be a favorite word of Bellairs, and his belittling term for long, winding roads, possibly with unattractive scenes observed from the car, were dubbed 'hagways.'
Dale Fitschen recalls driving Bellairs on the Indiana Toll Road, the Hagway's inspiration, from Chicago to Bellairs's teaching position in Gary: "In winter, the sky was gray and the air yellow, miles of utility towers, polluted [then] ponds and blasted heath. Twere godawful on morale to pass that on the way to make an attempt at sprightly teaching."
Bellairs also made use of the word in Massachusetts, writing in a June 1968 letter that he "got a tumble from Emmanuel College, a good Catholic girls school out on the Hagway in Boston near Hagway Park." The main thoroughfare past Emmanuel College is actually the Fenway, though the park he refers to is either the marshy Back Bay Fens park of the actual baseball stadium.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charnel_house
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