KIPLING'S SUSSEX - online book

An illustrated descriptive guide, to the places mentioned in the books and writings of Rudyard Kipling, particularly his Sussex stories.
By R. Thurston Hopkins, Published Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton,
Kent & Co., Ltd. London Circa 1921

There are probably many thousands of readers of Rudyard Kipling who have at some time or other paused while reading the particular book that happened to be in hand at the moment and asked mentally: " Just what sort of place is this village that Kipling mentions ? What is its life, what are its charms ? " The object of this slight study is to describe briefly these bits of Sussex which have served as a background for so many of Kipling's songs and stories. From Burwash, the home of Kipling, the writer will attempt to carry the reader in imagination, first to the Weald and Marsh, and then to the Downs, concerning which Kipling sings : — "I'm just in love with all these three, The Weald and Marsh and the Down countrie ; Nor I don't know which I love the most, The Weald or the Marsh or the white chalk coast ! " The notes in this book are all based on intimate personal knowledge. Almost every old building) church or out of the way place mentioned by Kipling, has been examined by the writer, in the vast majority of cases during the summer of 1920 ; and the descriptions given are based upon notes collected during the last twenty years. References to Sussex will be found in the following of his stories : Sussex Below the Mill Dam, A Centurion of the Thirtieth, Cold Iron, The Conversion of St Wilfrid, A Doctor of Medicine, Friendly Brook, An Habitation Enforced, The Knights of Joyous Venture, The Lamentable Comedy of Willow Wood, Marklake Witches 'My Son's Wife', Old Men at Pevensey, Railway Reform in Great Britain, Simple Simon Steam Tactics, The Tabu Tale, 'They', The Treasure and the Law, The Tree of Justice, Village Rifle Club, The Vorte, Weland's Sword, The Wrong Thing and Young Men at the Manor