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| Virginia's bedroom on the ground floor of Monk's House, where she used to write before the tool shed in the garden was converted for her use |
Hello!
This will be a relatively short post, as Kevin and I have just driven up to rural West Yorkshire for our first trip away since Christmas last year, braving the Delta variant that surrounds us on all sides in the larger towns and cities of the north-west of England.
The day before we left I drove over to the tiny village of Rodwell, near Lewes in East Sussex, to visit the National Trust property Monk's House. Having ticked off all the Jane Austen sites on my list, I thought it was about time I reactivated my work on the list for another of my favourite authors, Virginia Woolf.
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| Virginia Woolf photographed by Ottoline Morrell in 1924 © National Portrait Gallery, London |
Some years ago we visited Charleston (not far from Monk's House), the home of Virginia's sister Vanessa Bell. I have also wandered the streets of Kensington and gazed up admiringly at the elegant London townhouse at 22 Hyde Park Gate, where Virginia and her brother Adrian lived for some years after Vanessa married Clive Bell. However there are still a couple of properties to be visited.
I have read, and re-read, all of Virginia's novels and essays many times and most particularly Orlando, which is up there with Austen's Pride and Prejudice as one of my favourite novels. I was skeptical when Sally Potter's 1992 film adaptation came out but I needn't have worried; I mean, *Tilda Swinton* - the perfect embodiment of Virginia's gender-swapping hero/heroine. It is sublime. I saw it at the cinema three times and have my own copy on DVD. I've lost track of the number of times I've watched this glorious film.
The visit to Monk's House required me to take time off work, because the National Trust, in its wisdom, has decided they will only open Monk's House to the public for a few hours on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Fine if you're a retiree or somebody of independent means. Those of us struggling away on mediocre salaries are obliged to use one of our precious days of annual leave to visit. Additionally, they have only opened up the ground floor of the cottage.
The village of Rodmell is lovely, with picture-perfect cottages and larger houses, horses clip-clopping along its narrow lanes, and views over the open East Sussex countryside, to the surrounding chalk hills.
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| One of the nearby cottages in the village of Rodmell |
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| The Old Rectory, just down the lane from Monk's House |
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| Deep Thatch Cottage, where you can purchase eggs from their chickens at the front door, also just down the lane from Monk's House |
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| Cute little window display in a cottage in Rodmell |
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| Rampant wisteria and climbing roses adorn this cottage almost opposite Monk's House |
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| St Peter's Church, onto which Monk's House backs. It dates from the 12th century and is one of the earliest surviving examples of Norman architecture in England |
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| The flint and brick walls in the village are possibly held together by the plants that have miraculously managed to grow through them! |
Monk's House itself is a thoroughly charming and cosy dwelling, which was the country home of the Woolfs for over 20 years. Parts of the building date from the 16th century, but it has been added to over the centuries and the Woolfs renovated extensively, adding an upper level and extending the ground floor.
Most of the furniture on display is original, purchased by the Woolfs on jaunts abroad and closer to home. And just as you would expect, the walls are filled with artwork by their intimate circle of artistic relatives and friends. The Bloomsbury style is not necessarily an aesthetic I would choose for myself, but when you visit Charleston and Monk's House the mad, crowded designs have huge and fitting appeal. For The Bloomsbury Set art was not just for pictures on the wall - the walls, ceilings and floors were adorned with patterns and colours, furniture was decorated, busts were sculpted, pottery was made. It was a genuinely artistic and unconventional life for this group of people, celebrated via paint, pencil, clay and literature.
Many renowned artists and writers regularly visited the Woolfs at Monk's House including T S Eliot, E M Forster, Roger Fry and Lytton Strachey.
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| Steps leading up from the sitting room to the lean-to conservatory |
After Virginia's death Leonard continued to live in the cottage, joined by his new partner Trekkie Parsons, and there is abundant evidence of her artistic talent. Monk's House therefore is not a perfectly preserved shrine to Virginia, however I felt her presence in each of the rooms we are allowed to view and most particularly in the little ground floor bedroom (first photo in this post) which has a separate entrance to the rest of the house. It was here Virginia used to write before the tool shed at the bottom of the garden was converted for her into The Writing Lodge, in 1921. Virginia's bedroom is a light-filled and soothing space, continuing her preferred décor which incorporates many shades of green.
The house was described by Leonard as having a 'ramshackle informality,' with books, magazines and newspapers scattered on tables, chairs, floors and even up the staircase, and dog and cat bowls in various locations.
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| The moody and welcoming sitting room with its myriad shades of green. This part of the house dates from the 16th century |
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| More shades of green in the sitting room! A cosy nook in front of the fireplace |
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| The intimate dining nook - only room for six guests |
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| Stairs to the upper level, added by the Woolfs |
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| The rear of the house, with Virginia's bedroom wreathed in climbers, behind the delphiniums |
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| The Writing Lodge, converted from a toolshed for Virginia's exclusive use |
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| Kitchen cupboard painted in the Bloomsbury style by Trekkie Parsons |
Virginia apparently took much joy in the garden and indeed, it's beautiful - with a number of separate walled / hedged garden 'rooms' inviting quiet contemplation, an orchard and a couple of ornamental ponds. I visited Rodmell in peak bloom, in early summer when the entire village was heavy with the scent of roses, honeysuckle and lime trees.
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| Looking over the Italian Garden towards the rear of the house |
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| Bust of Virginia on the wall that divides the Fig Tree Garden from the Piggery Pond Garden |
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| The edge of one side of the garden, with far-reaching views across the East Sussex countryside |
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| Roses at the entrance to a cottage just up the lane from Monk's House |
Ms Woolf is acknowledged as 'not an easy read' and I understand why her literary style is not to some people's taste. By all accounts she was a highly complex character and her struggles with depression (most likely bipolar disorder) and anorexia are well documented. I don't think too many people would have been shocked by her suicide in 1941. At the age of 59 she filled the pockets of her overcoat with heavy stones and walked into the River Ouse not far from Monk's House.
But oh, what an exceptional woman! Ahead of her time in many respects and not least as one of the foremost feminist authors of the 20th century. Published in 1929, A Room of One's Own is an essay which decries the role of women solely as partners and child bearers, and defines an almost ridiculously simplistic but insightful edict that:
"A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."
Almost a century later, not much has changed.
Women with literary ambitions still struggle against the social pressure to focus on career in conjunction with or as an alternative to a life dominated by partner or family. Thank goodness Virginia found Leonard who, by all accounts, was her greatest champion, and with whom she jointly established The Hogarth Press in 1917. Without his support she probably never would have been published, and the literary world would be an infinitely less interesting place.
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| First edition cover of A Room of One's Own, published by the Hogarth Press |
Until next time,
- Maree xo
