Archaeological finds on Kipling's land and the book “Puck of Pook's Hill”
In 1902 Rudyard Kipling bought, at a bargain price, an ancient house near the hamlet of Burwash in Sussex.
The road to the house ran over a high hill, and to climb it a carriage needed a second horse harnessed on, which did little for the property's appeal to buyers. But not for Kipling, who was already getting about in a steam motor-car, and a little later acquired a Lanchester, so that the hill presented no difficulty whatever.
The house itself proved a veritable treasure-chest. The newest part of it was three hundred years old.
While a well was being dug, Kipling found on his land a tobacco pipe from the time of King James, at a depth of seven metres. Then came the brass spoon of a Cromwellian soldier. After that, part of a bronze horse bridle of Roman date. In the silt at the bottom of the pond lay two Elizabethan tankards. In the middle of the pond was hidden a Stone Age axe in excellent condition.
At the edge of the estate Kipling dug up the ruins of a mill that had stood on the spot since practically the time of the Phoenicians, with an Elizabethan smelting furnace. From his land began a cannon road dating from the days of the Great Armada.
In short, it is hardly surprising that it was here that he wrote his most magical and mysterious book, full of the spirit of history and bringing the forgotten past back to life: "Puck of Pook's Hill". And for it he received the Nobel Prize in 1907. This, in case anyone has forgotten how strongly our surroundings influence us.
