The Ship on the Hill
British writer Rudyard Kipling is perhaps best known for his story collection The Jungle Book. It includes stories about a five-year-old boy named Mowgli who becomes lost in the jungles of India. A gentle panther named Bagheera befriends the boy and brings him to a wolf pack. It is there that Mowgli meets a bear cub named Baloo. Mowgli not only survives in the jungle but also grows in courage and wisdom. The Jungle Book is still read today, but the stories also live on in movies that were made based on the book.
Kipling wrote several other books set in India. He was born there in 1865 and spent his early childhood in Bombay, where his father worked as a professor of architecture. When Kipling grew older, his British parents sent him to boarding school in England. Most people think of Kipling as a British writer, and he is. But what most people do not know is that Kipling wrote The Jungle Book while living in a small Vermont town. He described his time in America as the four happiest years of his life.
On February 17, 1892, Kipling and his new bride, Caroline, visited Brattleboro, Vermont. Caroline’s family, the Balestiers, lived there. Kipling was already a well-known writer. He and Caroline had been staying in New York City, but Kipling did not like city life. He found Vermont refreshing despite the cold weather. He wrote, "Thirty below freezing! The first shock of that clear, still air took away the breath as does a plunge into seawater." The Kiplings decided to move to Vermont.
At first, they stayed in a cottage they rented for ten dollars a month. Their oldest daughter, Josephine, was born there. Soon after the baby's birth, the Kiplings began planning a home of their own on a nine-and-a-half-acre plot of land in the small town of Dummerston, about four miles from Brattleboro's Main Street.
An architect was hired to design the house. It sits on a rocky hillside, with windows facing Mount Monadnock. The mountain rises majestically above Vermont’s green hills. Kipling found the mountain’s rocky peak inspiring.
Kipling named his new home Naulakha. When visiting British India, he had been inspired by the Naulakha Pavilion, which is in what is now Lahore, Pakistan. Kipling oversaw the design and construction of his home. The house sits high on the hillside. A high fieldstone foundation raised it even higher to improve the view of Mount Monadnock.
Kipling designed Naulakha to look "like a boat on the flank of a distant wave." It is long and narrow, measuring 90 feet by 22 feet. All the rooms face east with a view of the mountain. The only entrance is on the west side of the house. The entrance opens onto a long hallway that runs the length of the house and provides access to the east-facing rooms.
The prow, or front of the house, faces south. Kipling’s study, lined with built-in bookcases, is located there. Sun floods the room in the morning, which is when Kipling preferred to write. At his desk at Naulakha, Kipling wrote The Jungle Book and Captains Courageous. He wrote the Just So Stories for Little Children for Josephine. These tales include “How the Whale Got His Throat,” “How the Camel Got His Hump," "The Elephant’s Child,” and nine other fanciful stories. Kipling wrote many poems in Vermont. Naulakha gave him the privacy and time he needed. He later wrote, “When winter shut down and sleigh bells rang all over the white world that tucked us in, we counted ourselves lucky.”
Kipling’s life in Vermont was not all work. He and Caroline often entertained friends with parties and dances. One of those friends, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a Scottish writer who wrote stories about the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, visited Vermont one winter. He brought along a set of downhill skis. Some people give Conan Doyle credit for introducing the sport of downhill skiing to Vermont.
Kipling enjoyed playing golf. He invented the game of “snow golf.” He painted the golf balls red so they would show up against the white snow and planted tin cans in the snow to serve as holes. With energy and enthusiasm, he lobbed the red golf balls across the crusty surface of the snow toward the tin holes.
Kipling and his family left Vermont in 1896. Kipling always hoped to return, but he never did. He once wrote, “Those four years in America will be blessed unto me for all my life.”
Various friends lived at Naulakha until about 1942. Then it was abandoned for 50 years. In 1993, the Landmark Trust, an organization dedicated to preserving important homes, purchased Naulakha and began restoring it. Kipling’s original furnishings were still there. Today, the house looks just as it did when Kipling lived there. The Landmark Trust rents Naulakha to those who wish to stay for a night, a week, or a month. Temporary residents can sit at Kipling’s desk and enjoy the view that meant so much to Rudyard Kipling during his days in America.