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Published on June 27th, 2013 | by Michael Taylor

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Local History: Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling looked at the grand house and knew immediately he was going to buy it. It was exactly what he had been looking for after an unsettled, if successful, early life.

Kipling was born in 1865, in British India. He moved with his sister to England for a good education which, subsequently, was an experience he found utterly miserable. He found solace in reading and writing stories and through visiting his uncle, the artist Edward Burne-Jones, in London. After completing his studies in Devon, he rejoined his parents in India and, with his father’s help, began work as a journalist.

In 1889 he moved back to England and his literary success began. He used his experiences in India to bring his writing to life and ‘Barrack-Room Ballads’ brought his name to the forefront of the book world. He married his publisher’s sister, Caroline Starr Balestier, in 1892 and began an exotic honeymoon, taking in Japan and Canada. When the couple arrived at Caroline’s hometown of Vermont in the USA, money troubles put a stop to the trip and they decided to make the town their home. Here he wrote ‘Captain Courageous’ and his most famous work, ‘The Jungle Book’.

However, a family argument in 1896 led to front page gossip for the famous writer, and Rudyard felt it was best to move back to England. A house in Rottingdean, Sussex, was purchased and this is where Kipling penned ‘Kim’ and the ‘Just So’ stories. Six years later, Kipling stood in front of the grand house of his dreams in Burwash and, in 1902, bought the house he would live in for the rest of his life.

Batemans, as the house was named, was a home “…in which to settle down for keeps”. Kipling revelled in his “… grey stone lichened house—A.D. 1634 over the door—beamed, panelled, with old oak staircase, and all untouched and unfaked.” It was “A good and peaceable place” and Caroline and he “…loved it ever since our first sight of it.”

Kipling was finally settled. He bought the iron bell-pull from the front door of his uncle’s old house in London as a reminder of the days he spent visiting there. He hoped guests to Batemans would experience the same feelings ringing it as he had done when visiting his uncle all those years ago.

It was whilst living in Batemans that Kipling won the Noble Prize for Literature, the youngest person ever to do so at the age of 42. In 1926, he was awarded with the Gold Medal of the Royal Society of Literature. He settled into Sussex life quickly, befriending Arthur Conan Doyle and playing golf at the Beacon Golf Club in Crowborough.

Kipling died in 1936 and Batemans subsequently passed into the hands of the National Trust. It is still open to visitors today and there are a wealth of fascinating things to see – including the visitors’ book, with signatures from the likes of Stanley Baldwin and Rider Haggard. Many of the rooms remain as Kipling left them and his modern day fans will be delighted to see the home and belongings of this important man.


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