Batemans

[poliphilo]

I may have posted this picture earlier in the year, but never mind if I did. This is Kipling's Sussex home, "Bateman's". 



And here's the water mill at the bottom of his garden, where Dan and Una met Hal O' The Draft- and where,  in Below The Mill Dam, he imagines the spirit of the Mill wheel- somewhat senile- repeating its own entry in the Domesday Book to itself...

"Here Azor, a freeman, held one rod, but it never paid geld. Nun-nun-nunquam geldavit. here Reinbert has one villein and four cottars with one plough- and wood for six hogs and two fisheries of sixpence and a mill of ten shillings- unun molinum- one mill. Reinbert's mill- Robert's Mill. then and afterwards and now- tunc et post et modo- Robert's Mill. Book- Book- Domesday Book!"

Comments

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

Ah, I've walked past that mill on many many occasions whilst visiting Kate's parents' house in Burwash. Favourite dog-walking spot for us.

I may well have shown you this before, but I have set of Burwash photos on my flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dakegra/sets/1692863/

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Ooooh- Batemans in the snow!

[sovay]

Thank you. Now I should go to Vermont and photograph Naulakha . . .

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes indeed. Is it far?

[sovay]

Is it far?

I'm in Boston; it's a couple of hours each way. I could day-trip.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

So it's entirely feasible.

Is Naulakha open to the public?

[sovay]

Is Naulakha open to the public?

It looks like it . . .

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's a sad story.

If he hadn't had that falling out with his bro-in-law he might well have become a US citizen.

Surely that should be Joel Chandler Harris, not William.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

How utterly lovely! I could live in that house - or even in the water mill building. I prefer the natural landscape around the water mill to the manicured lawn around Bateman's.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The house is 17th century.

Kipling's daughter gave it to the nation complete with furnishings- so it's maintained more or less as it was in Kipling's time.

A lot of the grounds are wild. It's very easy to imagine the Kipling children playing in the woods and by the stream- as they're shown as doing (under pseudonyms) in Puck of Pook's Hill