Lamb House
Encyclopedia
Rye, East Sussex
Rye is a small town in East Sussex, England, which stands approximately two miles from the open sea and is at the confluence of three rivers: the Rother, the Tillingham and the Brede...
, East Sussex
East Sussex
East Sussex is a county in South East England. It is bordered by the counties of Kent, Surrey and West Sussex, and to the south by the English Channel.-History:...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, and in the ownership of the National Trust
National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty
The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
.
The house has literary
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
connections. It was the home of Henry James
Henry James
Henry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....
from 1898 to 1916, and later of E.F. Benson
Edward Frederic Benson
Edward Frederic Benson was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist and short story writer, known professionally as E.F. Benson. His friends called him Fred.-Life:E.F...
and Rumer Godden
Rumer Godden
Margaret Rumer Godden OBE was an English author of over 60 fiction and nonfiction books written under the name of Rumer Godden. A few of her works were co-written by her sister, Jon Godden, who wrote several novels on her own...
. Benson writes lovingly of both garden and house, renamed "Mallards", in his "Mapp and Lucia
Mapp and Lucia
Mapp and Lucia is a collective name for a series of novels by E. F. Benson, and is also the name of a television series based on those novels.-The novels:...
" novels. The publisher Sir Brian Batsford
Brian Batsford
Sir Brian Caldwell Cook Batsford was a British painter, designer, publisher and Conservative Party politician. Born in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire as Brian Caldwell Cook, he adopted his mother's maiden name in 1946.In 1928 he began working for the production department of the publishing firm...
, the literary agent Graham Watson and the writers John Senior and Sarah Philo have also held the tenancy in recent times.
Some of James's personal possessions can be seen and there is a walled garden.
The house is administered and maintained on the Trust's behalf by its current tenant.
Trivia
Lamb House is the subject of Joan AikenJoan Aiken
Joan Delano Aiken MBE was an English novelist. She was born in Rye, East Sussex, into a family of writers, including her father, American poet Conrad Aiken , her sister, Jane Aiken Hodge and her brother John Aiken Joan Delano Aiken MBE (4 September 1924 – 4 January 2004) was an English novelist....
's novel The Haunting of Lamb House which is composed of three novellas about residents of the house at different times, including James himself.
In 2006 Lamb House was subject to extensive exterior refurbishment including the application of bird control proofing measures to prevent seagulls from nesting and blocking the internal parapet drainage systems. The measures included the use of a new technique of horizontal parallel wires to prevent gulls from landing. Several sections of stonework and the copper roof were replaced. The works lasted for 3 months, from April to June.