Rudyard Kipling

Photo in header: Rudyard Kipling by Francis Henry Hart, for Elliott & Fry albumen print, 1893 NPG P1700(40a) © National Portrait Gallery, London

30 Dec 1865 – 18 Jan 1936

Still one of the most popular British authors and poets, Jungle Book author Rudyard Kipling and his wife lived at Rock House, Maidencombe from 1896-1898 on his return from America. 

Although he described Rock House as his 'dream home' this was an unhappy spell for him, as he often suffered from depression. Despite its idyllic spot on cliffs overlooking the sea, he and his family were gripped by “a gathering blackness of mind and sorrow of the heart” every time they entered it.

It was at Rock House he began one of his most well-known, controversial poems ‘The White Man’s Burden’. The house also featured as the haunted Holmescroft in ‘The House Surgeon’ (1909)

Kipling, however, wasn’t too impressed by Torquay’s conservatism, in a letter he wrote: “We are a rummy breed – and, O Lord, the ponderous wealthy society. Torquay is such a place as I do desire to upset by dancing through it with nothing on but my spectacles.

“Villas, clipped hedges and shaven lawns; fat old ladies with respirators and obese landaus. The almighty is a discursive and frivolous trifler compared with some of ’em ... but the land is undeniably lovely and I am making friends with the farmers.”

Look out for the Blue Plaque.  

Link to The Way Through the Woods: https://www.poetryarchive.org/poet/rudyard-kipling

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