Personal touches have been added to the Sussex home of Rudyard Kipling, including a list of his house rules for guests and song versions of some of his ballads.
They are part of a project at Bateman’s, the author’s home near Burwash now owned by the National Trust. They were inspired by the discovery last year of Pathe newsreel footage of Kipling at St Andrew’s University, probably the only recording of him speaking.
In the Parlour visitors will be able to listen to an original Edison Fireside Phonograph of recordings of his ballads, set to music in the 1970s and recorded by Jon Boden, singer of folk band Bellowhead.
In Elsie’s Sitting Room an old radio is tuned to hear extracts from Kipling’s writings, read by the actor Ralph Fiennes.
In the West Bedroom, where Kipling’s cousin Stanley Baldwin, who was prime minister, stayed during his frequent visits, clothes and luggage are lying around, as if the guest has just popped out, andon the door is a note of Kipling’s house rules.
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