BY CHARLES EVANS

‘That’s She! The Only She! Make an honest woman of her – quick!’ was how Rudyard Kipling and his wife, Carrie, felt the first time they saw Bateman’s.

Surrounded by the wooded landscape of the Sussex Weald, this 17th-century house, with its mullioned windows and oak beams, provided a much needed sanctuary to this world-famous writer.

The rooms, described by him as ‘untouched and unfaked’, remain much as he left them, with oriental rugs and artefacts reflecting his strong association with the East. Kim was his first major piece of writing that he wrote from his study at Bateman’s which links him and his fond childhood memories to India with real clarity and devotion, truly a master piece of descriptive writing. Kipling was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1907.

Bateman’s is very much a family home that feels as though the Kiplings have just gone out for the day.