Belloc's House And Mill

[poliphilo]

Of all the literary big beasts of the Edwardian era Hilaire Belloc is the least well known today. His politics and religion count against him and he mostly produced non-fiction- which has dated. All the same, he wrote beautiful prose and a handful of great lyric poems- and his comic verse is the best of the century.

I like him anyway.

He lived at Shipley in West Sussex. Here's his house- King's Land. It may not look like anything very special but under that modern surface is a medieval farmhouse that was probably built by the Knights Templar.



And here's the mill which stands next to the house. It used to be open to the public but isn't any more. Apparently it served as Jonathan Creek's home in the TV series of the same name.

Comments

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Belloc was also an appalling misogynist!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Are you sure? I'd want chapter and verse on that.

He was a man's man, certainly, but also an aggressively traditional Catholic with a deep devotion to Our Lady.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

And expected us all to behave like our lady..........

Aggressively traditional Catholic was the heart of the issue.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

He was a very complicated man- full of contradictions. It's part of what makes him interesting.

I'm still struggling to think of anything in his work I'd call misogynistic. If he wanted every woman to take Our Lady as her model he also expected every man to emulate St George. Call him old-fashioned, call him medieval, but I don't think those things equate to misogyny.

You know he wrote an admiring book about Joan of Arc?