A great day out!

Today we went to Bateman's, the house where Rudyard Kipling lived from 1902 until his death in 1936.

It was a wonderful day out, despite the freezing cold and the 'fairy dust' falling from the sky. There were guides in each room and they were brilliant, telling us all about the history of the house and the Kipling family, and answering all my children's more obscure questions! We heard an old Edison Phonograph playing and I even got to ring the doorbell (well, I rang it - whether I was supposed to is another matter!). There was also a working flour mill, powered by a water wheel, and the demonstration was really interesting.

Although taking photographs was allowed, using a flash wasn't so this picture is a bit dark but I thought it was fascinating as the desk is apparently exactly as it was when Kipling lived there and it was where he wrote this:


IF...

If you can keep your head when all about you
are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
but make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
or being hated, don't give way to hating,
and yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
and treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
and stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
and risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
and never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
to serve your turn long after they are gone,
and so hold on when there is nothing in you
except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
if all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
with sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
and - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!