Batemans

[poliphilo]

I've always loved Kipling. Always. Starting with the Just So Stories- which were read to me before I could read them myself- right through to the very difficult late short stories. I don't share his politics, but I reckon I understand them- and see how they might be accounted virtuous. He was a great writer; also  a very  good man- loyal, stoic, loving.

My granny was at Batemans during the First World War- with the Land Army- posted there to look after the cows. She was the person- more than any other- who turned me on to him.

I've been to Batemans several times. It's always a bit like coming home. The house was gifted to the National Trust by Kipling's surviving daughter- Elsie- along with all the furnishings and knick-knacks. Everything is just as Rud and Carrie left it in the 1930s- only tidier. 

P.S. You know the alphabet necklace from How The Alphabet Was Made? Well, it actually exists- and can be viewed in a glass case at Batemans.  I suppose Kipling must have made it himself- perhaps with a little help from the numerous artsists and craftspeople in his family. It's a lovely, ingenious thing.

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Kipling- born in India, inveterate globe-trotter, resident for many years in the USA- had that feeling too. There's a lovely story (partly autobiographical) called An Habitation Enforced- about an American couple who fall in love with an English house a lot like Batemans- only to find that their ancestors came from the village.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh that is a lovely story! I will look for this book, thank you :) Thank you also for sharing your beautiful photographs. I used to live next door to Hampton Court and I often wished I had photographed it more.

note to self:

[jourdannex.livejournal.com]

learn to log in when you reply to a comment so you are not anonymous :)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It was first published in a collection called Actions and Reactions.

I'm on a mission right now to photograph as much of picturesque Britain as I can:)