Monk’s House, Rodmell and Brighton Pride.

Leonard and Virginia Wolf buy this 17th century , weather - room cottage for £ 700 in 1919 as a weekend retirement . In 1940 they moved here for good . For 22 years Virginia bump the heartsease and isolation here which she needed to keep her flimsy genial state in proportion .

Monk ’s House , Rodmell .

The house was comfortless and primitive , with no running water or electricity , but they both bang it . They entertained guide lights of the Bloomsbury set up here and the deficiency of comfort is often mentioned in their records . The intellectual nourishment was speculative and there was no vino . T.S. Eliot enounce that it was the most uncomfortable bed he had ever slept in and E.M.Forster burn his leg try out to get as close as possible to the meager fire . The paries were paint in Virginia ’s favourite green and there were books and papers everywhere . The house was inconvenient and miss in mod.cons , but it was the garden and the grove which particularly delighted Leonard and Virginia . Virginia wrote of it:‘There seemed an infinity of fruit - bearing trees ; the plums crowded so as to weigh the peak of the branches down ; the unexpected flowers sprouting among the cabbages … I could fancy a very pleasant walk in the grove under the orchard apple tree tree with the grey asphyxiator of the church service ’s steeple point my bound . ’Leonard was to become passionate about his yield trees and even try his hand at grafting .

Monk’s House, Rodmell.

The shed on the left was Virginia ’s writing room and she became so successful , particularly after ‘ Orlando ’ was published , that they were able to make melioration to the house .

Leonard became a passionate nurseryman and although Virginia was not so fanatic she found joy in weeding . All gardeners will understand when she says that when weeding she felt : ‘ A queer sort of enthusiasm which makes me say this is happiness’ . She savor play lawn bowling and feeding the Pisces the Fishes and she was proud of what they achieved . ’Our garden is a sodding variegated chintz ; asters , plumasters , zinnia , geums , nasturtium and so on : all brilliant , tailor from coloured papers’.(I’m not sure what she mean by ‘ plumaster ’ . )

There are two fish pool and a croquet lawn . The bulwark of honest-to-god buildings fraction the garden into rooms and Leonard repose down brick itinerary everywhere .

Monk House, Rodmell.

Monk’s House, Rodmell.

There are retentive eyeshot over the down where Virginia loved to take the air . ‘The garden logic gate allow in tothe water meadows , where all nature is to be had in five minute ’ .

Sadly in 1941 , faced with the horror of another binge of rabies , Virginia put a heavy Oliver Stone into her scoop and swim herself in the nearby River Ouse , the panorama of so many happy walks . Leonard stayed on at Monk ’s House until his death in 1969 . The house is now give care for by the National Trust . Even today , with so many visitor pile to bear homage , their ghosts seem to linger in the garden that they loved .

Virginia Woolf

Leonard Woolf

If you would like to learn more , there is a great book about Monk ’s Hall called‘Virginia Woolf ’s Garden ‘ written by Caroline Zoub who inhabit there as a tenant for 10 years and cared for the garden .

By path of a full contrast , we arrived in Brighton for the weekend , to find the whole townen fête .

We inquire what all the circus atmosphere was about and on Saturday we chance that Gay Pride was having a party and we joined in the crowd of more than 200,000 people to determine the parade , which this year was call ‘ The Carnival of Diversity ’ . And what a joyous occasion it was .

Getting quick …

… and off we go .

Around the world there are still detest crimes against the LBGT biotic community as the late shooting in Orlando proves . At the company in the eve , there was one min ’s silence to observe the Orlando victims and the many other victims of hatred crimes across the globe .

We did n’t intend to be here for this event , but we were happy to bear shoulder to shoulder with these people and make a rack against the politics of fear and discrimination and patronize them in their celebration of multifariousness and tolerance .

“ Society , as we have constitute it , will have no lieu for me , has none to offer ; but Nature , whose sweet rains return on unjust and just alike , will have cleft in the rocks where I may hide out , and hole-and-corner valleys in whose muteness I may weep undisturbed . She will hang the night with stars so that I may take the air abroad in the darkness without stumbling , and air the wind over my step so that none may dog me to my hurt : she will clean me in great water system , and with bitter herbs make me whole ’ .

‘ De Profundis ‘ . Oscar Wilde .

If only he could have been there on Saturday .

45 Responses toMonk’s House, Rodmell and Brighton Pride.

humans has much farther to go ( as the reports from our presidential effort cue me daily ) but , yes , I think Oscar Wilde would be very proud of by the progress that ’s been made , even with the all too frequent setbacks .

I make out the idea of the Bloomsbury sic roughing it in the Woolf ’s country home ! presume I ask what happen to the vino ? What fabulous atmospheric condition for Gay Pride ! Your photos really capture the carnival atmosphere .

What an interesting post . I enjoyed reading Leonard Wolf ’s journal some years back and would have been concerned to see Monk ’s House . As for the lack of comfort , it is surprising how one can get used to it ( of course , some wine serve ) .