Toad Hall

Kenneth Grahame's mother died when he was five years old. He then went to live with his grandmother and uncle at their house, The Mount, which was a large country house overlooking the Thames in Cookham Dean. His uncle, David, introduced him to the rustic locality and this was influential in his later creation of Wind in the Willows.{{citation |last=Keel |first=Toby |date=2023-09-16 |title=The house that inspired Kenneth Grahame to write The Wind in the Willows is for sale in Berkshire |url=https://www.countrylife.co.uk/property/the-house-that-inspired-kenneth-grahame-to-write-the-wind-in-the-willows-is-for-sale-in-berkshire-259865 |journal=Country Life |language=en}}

On his retirement from the Bank of England in 1908, Grahame returned to Cookham Dean, staying in a house called Mayfield. An inspiration for the character, Mr Toad, was the local philanthropist Colonel Ricardo – an ebullient character who owned the first motor car in the village – a yellow Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost. He would offer lifts to the locals and so was well-known as a motoring enthusiast. Ricardo lived at Lullebrook Manor on Formosa Island, which is a large eyot in the Thames.{{citation |title=History of Lullebrook Manor, Cookham, Berkshire |url=https://www.berkshirehistory.com/castles/lullebrook_manor.html |year=2013 |author=David Nash Ford}}

In October 1908, The Wind in the Willows was published as a novel for children featuring an array of anthropomorphic characters, including Rat (a water vole), Mole, Badger and Toad.{{cite web|url=https://www.pookpress.co.uk/project/kenneth-grahame-biography/|title=Kenneth Grahame biography|publisher=Pook Press|accessdate=11 January 2020}} Toad lives in a house on the edge of the River Bank, Toad Hall. The novel was almost universally condemned by critics, but achieved very considerable sales.{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/donotmigrate/3671092/Kenneth-Grahame-Lost-in-the-wild-wood.html|title=Kenneth Grahame: Lost in the wild wood|first=John|last=Preston|date=10 February 2008|publisher=Daily Telegraph}} It has been in print continuously since its publication and has been adapted for plays, a ballet,{{cite web|first=Andrew|last=Motion|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/dec/07/dance.theatre |title=Return to Toad Hall|work=The Guardian|date=7 December 2002}} films and musicals.{{cite web|url=https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/the-wind-in-the-willows/Content?oid=873360|title=The Wind in the Willows|first=Albert|last=Williams|publisher=Chicago Reader|date=2 February 1989}} Originally published as plain text, it has subsequently been illustrated by a number of notable artists including Paul Bransom, Arthur Rackham and E. H. Shepard.{{cite web|url=http://www.worldcollectorsnet.com/articles/wind-willows-books-illustrators/|title=Wind in the Willows Books & Illustrators|date=27 May 2012|publisher=World Collectors Net}}

The decline, loss and recovery of Toad Hall, which forms the trajectory of the novel, has been seen as an allegory for the state of England at the time of the book's writing. Toad, through his profligacy and caprice, threatens the prevalent social order, "letting down his class and exposing it to danger".{{sfn|Geer|2010|p=226}} He symbolises a decadent aristocracy that "squanders his inheritance [and is] indifferent to his house"; the weasels and stoats,which overrun the hall, are the (working) "class enemy"; while Badger, Rat and Mole are the "bourgeois intelligentsia" who alone can save the "Ancestral Home" and restore the social status quo.{{sfn|Winnifrith|1992|p=46}} Toad Hall itself "dominates", and symbolises, the Arcadian pastoral landscape that is The Wind in the Willows, in the same relationship as Woburn Abbey or West Wycombe Park to their Reptonian parklands.{{sfn|Moore|1990|pp=53-54}}

Grahame's description of Toad Hall is sparse: "a handsome, dignified old house of mellowed red brick, with well-kept lawns reaching down to the water's edge".{{sfn|Grahame|1995|p=35}} Its owner is in no doubt as to its merits: {{"'}}Finest house on the whole river,' cried Toad boisterously. 'Or anywhere else, for that matter.{{'"}}{{sfn|Grahame|1995|p=36}} The hall has a "very old banqueting-hall, stables stand to the right of the house, as viewed from the river"{{sfn|Grahame|1995|p=35}} and a "large boat-house" is located on the riverbank.{{sfn|Grahame|1995|p=35}} Despite Toad's pride in, or vanity regarding, his ancestral home, he takes little care over its maintenance. The grounds, and the boathouse are filled with discarded cars and boats, abandoned by Toad as he moves on to his latest passion, caravanning.{{sfn|Albritton|2021|p=60}} An ancient underground passage, unknown to Toad but vouchsafed to Mr Badger by Toad's father, and of critical importance to the novel's denouement,{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Wind-in-the-Willows|title=The Wind in the Willows—A Summary|publisher=Britannica|accessdate=11 January 2021}} "leads from the river bank ..., right up into the middle of Toad Hall".{{sfn|Grahame|1995|p=184}} Using the tunnel to gain access to the house, the ensuing battle between Toad's supporters and the weasels has been described as a "masterpiece of asymmetrical warfare".{{cite news|url=https://taskandpurpose.com/culture/battle-toad-hall-masterpiece-asymmetrical-warfare/|title=The battle of Toad Hall is a masterpiece of asymmetrical warfare|work=Task & Purpose|date=26 February 2017|access-date=10 April 2024}}

A number of houses have been cited as the inspiration for Toad Hall. These include:

• Fawley Court in Buckinghamshire;{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-14110256|title=High Court fight over 'Toad Hall'|date=11 July 2011|publisher=BBC News}}{{cite web|url=https://www.creationtheatre.co.uk/real-toad-hall-please-stand/|title=Would the real Toad Hall please stand up|publisher=Creation Theatre Company|date=23 November 2017}}{{cite web|url=http://www.berksandbuckslife.co.uk/out-about/places/wind-in-the-willows-centenary-1-1632245|title=Wind in the Willows Centenary|first=Nick|last=Channer|publisher=Berks&Bucks Life|date=23 February 2013}}
• Fowey Hall Hotel in Cornwall;{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/united-kingdom/england/cornwall/articles/Is-this-Cornwalls-most-family-friendly-hotel/|title=Is this Cornwall's most family-friendly hotel?|first=Fiona|last=Duncan|date=3 October 2017|publisher=Daily Telegraph}}
• Foxwarren Park in Surrey;{{cite web |url=http://www.victorianweb.org/art/architecture/buxton/1.html |title=Foxwarren Park, near Cobham, Surrey |publisher=The Victorian Web|accessdate=11 January 2021}}{{citation |title=Is this house the real Toad Hall? |newspaper=The Scotsman |date=10 March 2001 | first=Michelle|last=Nichols}}
• Hardwick House in Oxfordshire;{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/11950260/Secrets-scandal-and-Toad-of-Toad-Hall-the-properties-with-stories-to-tell.html|title=Secrets, scandal and Toad of Toad Hall: the properties with stories to tell|first=Max|last=Davidson|date=24 October 2015|publisher=Daily Telegraph}}
• Mapledurham House also in Oxfordshire.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire/content/articles/2008/10/15/wind_in_the_willows_centenary_feature.shtml|title=Who spawned Mr Toad?|first=Linda|last=Serck|publisher=BBC Berkshire|date=15 October 2008}}

The house's title has also been an inspiration in the subsequent century: examples of Toad Hall are found in a 1930s mansion in Aiken, South Carolina by the architect Willis Irvin;{{cite news|url=https://www.postandcourier.com/aikenstandard/news/ryefields-captures-1930s-aiken-toad-hall-adds-to-history-leadership-winner-a-staple-for-populace/article_c3f9702e-6602-5d8e-a7df-f8e3b63e6b67.html|title=Ryefields captures 1930s Aiken Toad Hall adds to history Leadership winner a staple for populace Praised for preservation|work=Aiken Standard|date=23 February 2014|access-date=10 April 2024}} the de Menil residence designed by Charles Gwathmey in Amagansett, New York;{{cite news|url=https://www.postandcourier.com/aikenstandard/news/ryefields-captures-1930s-aiken-toad-hall-adds-to-history-leadership-winner-a-staple-for-populace/article_c3f9702e-6602-5d8e-a7df-f8e3b63e6b67.html|first=Grace|last=Glueck|title=The De Menil Family: The Medici of Modern Art|work=New York Times|date=18 May 1986|access-date=10 April 2024}} an estate in the Virgin Islands;{{cite web|url=https://bvi.gov.vg/media-centre/toad-hall-estate-acquired-national-park|title=Toad Hall Estate acquired as a national park|publisher=Virgin Islands Ministry of Natural Resources|date=11 November 2019|access-date=10 April 2024}} and a restaurant in Fantasyland at Disneyland Paris.{{cite web|url=https://www.designingdisney.com/parks/disneyland-paris/disneyland-park/fantasyland/designing-fantasyland-toad-hall-restaurant/|title=Designing Fantasyland – Toad Hall Restaurant|publisher=Designing Disney|access-date=10 April 2024}}

File:Fawley Court - geograph.org.uk - 956417.jpg|Fawley Court, Buckinghamshire

File:Fowey Hall hotel - geograph.org.uk - 799435.jpg|Fowey Hall Hotel, Cornwall

Fox Warren 1860.png|Foxwarren Park, Surrey

File:Hardwick House 2013 10 27 East side.JPG|Hardwick House, Oxfordshire

File:Mapledurham House in early sunshine.jpg|Mapledurham House, Oxfordshire

{{Reflist}}

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|title=Educational Theory in British Children's Classics: Teaching and Learning down the rabbit hole

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9tcxEAAAQBAJ&dq=Toad+Hall+history&pg=PA60

|year=2021

|publisher=Lexington Books

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|isbn=978-1-793-61631-9

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• {{Cite book

|last=Geer|first=Jennifer

|editor1=Jackie C. Horne |editor2=Donna R. White

|title=Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows: A Children's Classic at 100

|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8zKwyB9bqYYC&q=%22Toad+Hall%22+&pg=PA3

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|year=2010

|publisher=Scarecrow Press

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• {{Cite book

|last=Grahame | first=Kenneth

|author-link= Kenneth Grahame

|title=The Wind in the Willows

|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/38040126

|year=1995

|publisher=The Folio Society

|location=London

|oclc=38040126

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• {{cite journal

|last1 = Moore | first1 = John David

| date = 1990

| title = Pottering About in the Garden: Kenneth Grahame's Version of Pastoral in The Wind in the Willows

| url = https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1315036.pdf

| journal = Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association

| volume = 23

| issue = 1

| pages = 45–60

| doi = 10.2307/1315036

| jstor = 1315036

| access-date = 10 April 2024

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• {{Cite book

|last=Winnifrith | first=Tom

|title=Leisure in Art and Literature

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|year=1992

|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan

|location=London

|isbn=978-1-349-11353-8

}}

Category:Fictional houses

Category:Culture associated with the River Thames

Category:Fictional buildings and structures originating in literature

Category:The Wind in the Willows