Kingsley and Kipling

Ever since I arrived here in Westward Ho! I have been curious about the name of this place.  For someone coming from North America, I associate the words with the purported shouts (at least in the movies) of the pioneers and settlers in their covered wagons as they headed off to the "wild, wild west" from St. Louis in the early 19th century.  It was surprising to find a village of the same name in Devon.  Apparently, it is the only town in the UK with a name ending in an exclamation mark.  I would venture a guess it is probably the only one in the world but would happily be corrected if I am wrong.

The village/town (not sure how you distinguish between them) has about 2100 residents but that swells to much more on weekends and during holidays.  There is an amazing beach and, for those familiar with Parkville on Vancouver Island, it is somewhat similar.  The difference is there is very rocky terrain at the southern end (where even a pool has been fashioned into the rock and used at low tide) while gorgeous sand to the north extends across an expanse of coastline to sand dunes in the distance.  The following photos were taken at various tide levels.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Okay, so Kingsley and Kipling and what is their association with this place? 

A man named Charles Kingsley (1819 – 1875) was living at Northdown Hall in Bideford when he wrote a novel “Westward Ho!” in 1855 and the book became an instant best seller.  By 1897, it had been reprinted thirty-eight times and really brought the North Devon coast to the attention of the Victorians.  Even though it was a swashbuckling novel about conflicts between the English and Spanish, Kingsley’s loving descriptions of North Devon has never been bettered.  One of his favourite haunts was the beach and the pebble ridge where he used to employ quarrymen to move large boulders so he could examine the marine life underneath. 
 
So,, the village name comes from the title of his novel which was set in nearby Bideford.  Because of its fame, entrepreneurs saw the opportunity to develop tourism in the area.  In 1863 “The Northam Burrows Hotel and Villa Building Company” was formed and the development began.  The hotel was named the “Westward Ho! Hotel” and the adjacent villas were also named after the book.  As further development took place, the expanding settlement also acquired the name of Westward Ho! The exclamation mark is therefore an intentional part of the village’s name.  Kingsley never visited the new resort of Westward Ho! and never disguised his abhorrence of the project. 
 
Further, apparently, Charles Kingsley lived in Clovelly as a child and returned many times as an adult staying at what is now known as Kingsley Cottage.  Although Kingsley wrote the following description of Clovelly over 150 years ago, the village has changed so very little over the decades that his words could have been written today. 

Suddenly a hot gleam of sunlight fell upon the white cottages, with their grey steaming roofs and little scraps of garden courtyard, and lighting up the wings of the gorgeous butterflies which fluttered from the woodland down to the garden.

Now, to Rudyard Kipling.  When Paul and I were walking along the seafront the other day, we came upon a sign referring to the author with his poem "If" detailed on it as well.  In addition, embedded in pebbles along the asphalt walk, is the first line of his poem If. 

The writing on the sign says:

Kipling was born in 1865 in Bombay, India, the son of John Lockwood Kipling and Alice Kipling.  Is mother moved him to England in 1871 for a formal British education.  Initially he went to foster carers in Southsea where he experienced bullying and abuse from his foster mother.  This was an unhappy time for Kipling where he was subjected to bullying and violence at the place he would call the “House of Desolation”.

Fortunately, in 1878 his mother moved him to the United Services College, Westward Ho!, a school founded to prepare boys for life in the British Army.  This however was not the case for Kipling, as fortunately his headmaster and family friend fostered his literary ability which enabled his writing to flourish.  It was this time in Kipling’s life that provided the setting for his novel “Stalky and Co.”  Kipling left the United Services College in 1882 and became one of the most popular writers of the 19^th and 20^th centuries, rewarded for his efforts with a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907, the youngest recipient to date (as of 2017).

Adorned across the Westward Ho! Promenade in front of the beach huts is the first vers of his world-renowned poel, “If”.  The poem was written by Kipling in 1895 and first poublished in 1910 in his collection of short stories and poetry entitled “Rewards and Fairies”.  It is written in the form of paternal advice towards his son, John, listing virtues that will transform his son into a man.  How many of those virtues are still valid today?

 

So, that is the story of the two men's relationship to Westward Ho! 
 
Totally unrelated to the title of this post, I have included some photos of the flat where I am staying.  It is on two levels - the upper ones of a three storey building.  The lower floor has two bedrooms and two bathrooms and the upper has a sitting room, kitchen and dining room, all in an open plan.  There are balconies off the master bedroom and at both ends of the upper floor.  Sitting on the one overlooking the sea has been restorative as I always miss being away from the ocean.  I've seen several signs both here and in Croatia saying "Everyone needs their Vitamin Sea" - which is very true for me!  Here are a few photos of the apartment which is right up there with ones I've rented in Bandon and Villefranche-sur-Mer in the south of France.