sweasel.com

It looks like intestines.

Can’t be helped.

Actually potatoes are renowned as being the most psychic of root vegetables. Leeks, on the other hand, have not a shred of the eldritch about them.

Looks fine to me. It even has a water mill on the property. What more could you ask for? Does it have a Great Hall? I need a Great Hall.

Year ago I read a story about his son dying in WWI and how he and his wife were devastated by his death and spent years searching for his remains.

Yes, there is definitely something wrong about Bateman’s. I rarely take against a house but that one has a damaging melancholy about it and I’m not at all sure the owners brought it with them – though they may have done.

A great man, of course, and hideously traduced by the Left, most particularly with the familiar accusations of “racism”.

And that about a man who wrote of his own induction into Freemasonry: ” I was entered [as an Apprentice] by a member from Brahmo Somaj, a Hindu, passed [to the degree of Fellow Craft] by a Mohammedan, and raised [to the degree of Master Mason] by an Englishman. Our Tyler was an Indian Jew.”

Hm. Can’t argue about Bateman’s, never having been there, or about his having “found himself increasingly at odds with the world.” But–I can’t say I am impressed by Amis’s opinion about his work. Puck of Pook’s Hill was published in 1906, and some of his most mature, thoughtful poetry was written after 1902. If one judges solely by his prose work, well … I’m not really a judge because, by and large, I find his prose crabbed and irritating, hinting at more than it really manages to offer. Looking at this timeline http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/kip_fra.htm it appears that his work may have grown more experimental in that period, which can be off-putting.

And, given that apparently neither he nor his family found Bateman’s unpleasant, it could well be that the atmosphere you and Amis found disturbing was a result of Kipling’s occupancy, or even something which happened after it.

Puck of Pook’s Hill is one of the best. It was an awesome way to learn more about the place I will probably leave my bones. Where we live is mentioned in it, though not by name.

Is it on Google Streetview?

Nevermind…here ya go: http://tinyurl.com/c3ph9zl

…now the rest of us can know what you’re talking about 🙂

@ David Gillies

It’s because they have so many eyes to see into “the beyond.”

🙂

If you hover your mouse over the house, a little square photo appears…if you click it you can get a slide show.

Your reaction reminds me of Kipling’s story “The House-Surgeon”. The narrator meets a man who bought an old house, only to find its atmosphere intolerable for his wife and daughter. This although no one has ever died in the house (which wasn’t very old, I guess).

The narrator identifies the aggrieved spirit that hangs over the house, and relieves its problem, freeing the house.

A friend of mine visited Bateman’s once; I’ll ask him if he had a negative reaction.

I also disagree with Amis’ opinion of Kipling’s later work. Much of it is hackery, but some of is among his absolute best. And it’s not as though his early work was all brilliant either.

That’s for both prose and poetry. YMMV, of course.

What do a Weasel and a Badger pack in their picnic lunch?

Wellll…we were running a bit late, Deborah, so we didn’t pack our own this time. We stopped off at a Tesco’s. Which had sausage rolls for him and, surprisingly, sushi for me. You don’t find sushi much here and I was a big consumer thereof in the States.

Sausage Rolls and Sushi. Sounds like excellent picnic food, although I secretly hoped you’d packed watercress sandwiches, and scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam. I have found some recipes/instructions for making clotted cream, but I am reluctant to try (just what I need: more fat calories). I’ve never tasted watercress—is it similar to cilantro?

Oddly, I just read this Amis book about Kipling, which contains pictures of this (in)famous house. It’s a shame that Kipling has gotten this “racist” reputation — in fact, from what I’ve read, people during the latter part of his lifetime were already springing onto that bandwagon, saying that he was out of touch with the tone in modern (ca. 1910) Britain.

Just because he pointed out the violence, dirt, and superstition of non-British peoples — violence, dirt, and superstition that actually existed — does not make him a racist. He didn’t come to India as a grown man and only then become horrified at how different it was from England. No; he grew up there, played with native children as a boy, etc.

As with Heinlein, a lot of the people who castigate him have never read him.

Aren’t English picnics supposed to consist of: ham and turkey sandwiches, bags of lettuce, hard-boiled eggs, heaps of tomatoes, and lashings of ginger-beer?

An English picnic is 12 pints at the local pub.

Well, last time, when we packed our own, we had bacon sammiches, ham sammiches, boiled eggs, tomatoes and a flask of tea. Uncle B is one of those guys who doesn’t eat bunny food, so a lot of English staples are right out.

I used to get cress out of the creek back home, but I’m not sure I’ve ever eaten cilantro.

Clotted cream is absolutely to die for.

Cilantro is often used in making fresh salsas. I love it. Many people hate it. They are weird.

Another eeeeenteresting bit from the Wiki entry:

Bateman’s was also used in the coloured 1966 edition of Tintin, ‘The Black Island’, as the basis for the residence of Müller, the ex-Nazi antagonist.

You see? Nazi house.

Uncle Badger,

Help me out here. Please tell me that I didn’t waste my youth watching and re-watching episodes of “The Young Ones” for naught? If I can’t make obscure references to British tv shows on a mostly-British blog, then WHERE ELSE AM I GOING TO PUT THIS KNOWLEDGE TO USE?????

Sorry..got a bit hysterical there.

Since watercress is sometimes described as having a spicy, peppery bite, I thought it might be similar to cilantro. If you want to start a fight on a food blog, just say you love and/or hate cilantro. Apparently there is no middle ground.

I don’t understand why clotted cream is not an American staple. It’s why cows make milk! I know you can easily buy clotted cream, but have you—Stoaty—or Uncle Badger ever made your own?

waste my youth watching and re-watching episodes of “The Young Ones” for naught?

I thought I was the only one.

“Oh, have we got a video?”

Deborah–nope. Watercress and cilantro (both of which I am quite fond of) have entirely distinct tastes. For watercress, think more in the “radish and radish greens” flavor category, although it doesn’t actually taste like radishes. Or radish greens for that matter.

Ever since I took an experimental allergy medicine back in the 80’s, I’ve been unable to eat cress or any other nasturtium. I’m terribly fond of them too.

Ever since I took an experimental allergy medicine back in the 80′s, I’ve been unable to eat cress or any other nasturtium. I’m terribly fond of them too.

But I’ll bet the laser eyes & the teleportation powers are totally worth it.

Feynmangroupie – the tragedy is that the ‘lashings of ginger beer’ joke is almost too true to be funny! They nailed poor Enid Blyton to perfection! 🙂

And no, I’ve never made clotted cream, Deborah.

It did play a small part in the mustelids’ courtship ritual though (no, not like that!)

Before I enticed Her Stoatliness to leave her homeland I sent her some clotted cream by express post.

Amazing, the things you can use as bait in a weasel trap. 😉

Note outside North America, cilantro is called coriander. It was pretty much a staple ingredient of Indian food when I lived in Bradford, and of course it’s a sine qua non in Mexican food like Pico de Gallo. Some people find the taste soapy: I believe this is a genetic thing. Confusingly, the seeds are called coriander both in the UK and US.

I never much liked watercress, but the miniature grow-it-on-a-damp-flannel variety is much sweeter. Very good with fishpaste sandwiches.

I think Kipling’s being “at odds with the world” is the result of the loss of two of his children, especially the death of his son in WW1. His poem “The Gods of the Copybook Headings” are some of the truest words ever written.