KIPLING (Rudyard, 1865-1936, Novelist & Poet)

Fine Autograph Letter signed in full to "Colvin" saying "yes indeed, and it is a most kindly thought on your part. My only fear is that the Bishops won't be half as much interested in the event as I am ...", 1 side 8vo., Rock House, Maidencombe, St Marychurch, no date but circa

The Kiplings lived in Rock House near Torquay from 1896 to 1898. Although it was a large villa in beautiful grounds they were not happy there. He wrote in his memoirs that the house "seemed almost too good to be true. It was large and bright, with big rooms each and all open to the sun, the grounds embellished with great trees and the warm land dipping southerly to the clean sea under the Marychurch cliffs". For several months the Kiplings enjoyed riding about the lanes on a tandem they had brought back from America, until one day they skidded, fell off and vowed never to ride again. They began to complain about "a gathering blackness of mind and sorrow of the heart" whenever they entered their new home. They extracted themselves from the lease on the pretext of a faulty cystern and went to Sussex where, in 1902, they bought Bateman's where they lived for man".y years. The house reappeared in a short story in 1909 as Holmescroft where it was described as a "large, two storied, low creeper-covered residence", very pleasant but for a "dumb Thing" - an overwhelming sense of gloom which descended upon anyone who entered it"

Item Date:  1897

Stock No:  39731     

                


KIPLING-39731-1.jpg

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