John Steinbeck in 1939 Born

Talland House (1882–1894)[edit]

Talland House, St. Ives, c. 1882–1895

Leslie Stephen was in the habit of hiking in Cornwall, and in the spring of 1881 he came across a large white house^[63] in St Ives, Cornwall, and took out a lease on it that September.^[64] Although it had limited amenities,^[j] its main attraction was the view overlooking Porthminster Bay towards the Godrevy Lighthouse,^[3] which the young Virginia could see from the upper windows and was to be the central figure in her To the Lighthouse (1927).^[38] It was a large square house, with a terraced garden, divided by hedges, sloping down towards the sea.^[3] Each year between 1882 and 1894 from mid-July to mid-September the Stephen family leased Talland House^[3][65][k] as a summer residence. Leslie Stephen, who referred to it thus: "a pocket-paradise",^[66] described it as "The pleasantest of my memories... refer to our summers, all of which were passed in Cornwall, especially to the thirteen summers (1882–1894) at St Ives. There we bought the lease of Talland House: a small but roomy house, with a garden of an acre or two all up and down hill, with quaint little terraces divided by hedges of escallonia, a grape-house and kitchen-garden and a so-called 'orchard' beyond".^[67] It was in Leslie's words, a place of "intense domestic happiness".^[68] Virginia herself described the house in great detail:

"Our house was...outside the town; on the hill....a square house, like a child's drawing of a house; remarkable only for its flat roof, and the railing with crossed bars of wood that ran around the roof. It had...a perfect view—right across the Bay to Godrevy Lighthouse. It had, running down the hill, little lawns, surrounded by thick escallonia bushes...it had so many corners and lawns that each was named...it was a large garden—two or three acres at most...You entered Talland House by a large wooden gate...up the carriage drive...to the Lookout place...From the Lookout place one had...a perfectly open view of the Bay....a large lap...flowing to the Lighthouse rocks...with the black and white Lighthouse tower"

Reminiscences 1908, pp. 111–112^[33]



Godrevy Lighthouse, 2005