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Thirteen miles northwest of Hastings on the A265, halfway to
Tunbridge Wells, BURWASH , with its red-brick and weatherboard cottages
and Norman church tower, exemplifies the pastoral idyll of inland Sussex.
Half a mile south of the village lies the main attraction, Bateman's (March
Sat & Sun 11am-5pm; April-Oct Mon-Wed, Sat, Sun & public holidays
11am-5pm; £5; NT), home of the Nobel Prize-winning writer and journalist
Rudyard Kipling from 1902 until his death in 1936. Built by a local
ironmaster in the seventeenth century and set amid attractive gardens,
the house features a working watermill converted by Kipling to generate
electricity. Inside, the house is laid out as he left it, with letters,
early editions of his work and mementoes from his travels on display.
Next to the house, a garage houses the last of Kipling's Rolls Royces,
one of the many that he owned during his lifetime, although he never
actually drove them, preferring the services of a chauffeur.
Bodiam Castle (Feb-Oct daily 10am-6pm or dusk; Nov-Feb Sat & Sun
10am-4pm or dusk; £3.70; NT), eleven miles north of Hastings, is a
classic, stout, square castle with rounded corner turrets, battlements
and a moat. When it was built in 1385 to guard what were the lower
reaches of the River Rother, Bodiam was state-of-the-art military
architecture, but during the Civil War a company of Roundheads breached
the fortress and removed its roof to reduce its effectiveness as a
possible stronghold for the King. Over the next 250 years Bodiam fell
into neglect until restoration earlier this century by the philanthropic
Lord Curzon. Nowadays, the castle particularly appeals to children who
enjoy clambering up the narrow spiral staircases, which lead to
crenellated battlements, and watching the absorbing fifteen-minute video
portraying medieval life in a castle.
For accommodation and food , head for the lovely village of Ewhurst ,
two miles southeast of Bodiam, which houses an idyllic country pub, the
White Dog Inn (tel 01580/830264, ; £40-50).
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