The Topeka state journal., 1901-06-27
KIPLING'S ENGLISH HOME.

IF'rom Black and White.7
Mr.. Rudyard Kipling Is very EnglilSsn
Elms, one of the least pretentious
houses in a village remarkable for
neither glory of architecture nor the
ambitious proportions of its dwelling
places. One feels that truly, with Kip
ling. an Englishman's house is his cas-
tie to himself. whatever it may De to
others. To the residence of so noted
man certain halo OF distinction at
taches. In spite of this. however. the
visitor who makes a pilgrimage to Rot
tingdean to see where lives his hero is
frresistib1y bound to laugh at the sight
of The Elrns. The whole place Is
charmingly Kiplingesque--n un-
assuming to absurdity, and one instant
" feels that he likes his Rudyard kip
ling more than ever because of II.
Solidly, unromantically comfortable
without a pretence to beauty or pic
turesqueness, modest in size. The Films
stands tight, def1antly unloNely, IN
closed by a high, stout wall Of TYPICAL
~ rural fashioning. The Elms would
not win q second glance from a mildly
clrek would consider the place impossi-
bly, unattractive; the aesthetic would
shudder to think that the 'sRecesstonaI
was created within this little common
place in stone plaster and red tiles.
A Tolstoi could scarcely desire more
modest little establishment. hermit Of
greater privacy. A double barrelled
gateway. solid and high as the walls
and the little electric bell looks quaint
~ incongruous inset in SO much of
ancient sclidity. A tiny trapdoor in the
gateway, just large enough for one TO
squeeze his card through. is governed
from the inside. and the inmates of The
Elms are secure from intrusion once
they sport their oak"
So far as living interest is concerned,
the Kiplings are Nottingham for the
outside world. It has associations,
pleasant and sad associations, however,
%114r- 20 ant
vfcarage, just across the way, is q far
more important seeming establishment
than The Elms, and has a history to
back its claim to notice The Rotting-
dean vicarage was anciently famous
as a school Cardinal Manning, the
great Duke of wellington and Bulwer
Lytton were among the scholars of the
old time Wears.
Rottingdeas p a strange admixture
of the medieval and the modern. Some
of its tortuous, struggling highways OF
corduroy pattern, bordered by quaint,
Old World cottages and gardens, carry
one far back into history, and make him
forget the clatter of excursion parties
in brakes. cabs. traps. and motor cars
from the too, too adjacent Brighton.
For a moment one can think that Kip
ling has home, quiet and Isolated from
the busy world, as the Hills whose Plain
Tales he tells. And then a turn brings
one back to the main thoroughfare,
where are uE to date little shops and
the electric light. Yes the electric light
in shop and street in this pocket Of a
place.
Your driver brisks up his steed and
whirls you rapidly past The Elms, up
the hillside by the house, pulls up at
a corner some distance along the white
steep road, and mute and expectant,
invites by gesture your admiration and
appreciation of the most advanced out
post of civilization. It is an electric
lamp set in the corner of the lane. with
a background Of hayrtcks and barns,
and looking as strangely placed as &
steam plow in the Garden of Eden.
But, incongruous or not, the tllumin-
ant is there, and the kiplings are not
the least considerable consumers OF 1t
Comfort and convenience form the key
to the domestic policy of The ElEns-
Mr.. Kipling used to possess a motor car
and n AXE his journeys to and from
Brighton in it. But the machine proved
fractions. so the Brighton cabmen re-
assert their title to serve him They
all know the master of The Eims, and
count him the finest of patriots in dis
carding his road engine
All the boys in the village are the
personal chums of the owner of The
Elms. He knows them all by name.
and is familiar with the history and
characteristics Of each.
There is a little wood and iron erec-
ton standing close by the house and
the pond. It is the gymnasium which
Mr. kipling has built for the rising
hopes Of rockingham. When work
pals in the evenings he takes himself
and his pipe across to the gymnasium.
and has a gossip with his young
friends, in whose exercises he takes a
great delight. When the boys have fin
ished they cluster around their patron
and beg him to tell them something
about India or the army. Many fas-
cinating word picture of the jungle and
its denizens he will draw for them.
The world admires kipling as a genius
the boys who know him at home wor-
ship him as a sort of glorified elder
brother.
He is keenly interested in military
exercises for youths, and will take the
most promising of his youthful friends
down to the beach shooting. He has
organized a rife club for the encour-
agement and practice of marksman-
ship among the older men of the vii
lage. It is not surprising that Rotting-
dean men have been fighting at the
front
Mr.. Kipling stands aloof from the
public work of the village, and viii
have none of the local board He is not
a public man at home His work is
probably less known from reading by
the Rottingdeaners than by the resi-
dents in many an isolated town in
North America. Yet he is clearly the
most popular man IN the village. not
as Rudyard KiDling the poet and au-
thor. but as Rudyard Kipling the man,
the playmate of the boys. the idol of
the young men.