The Wind in the Willows
THE WORLD OF KENNETH GRAHAME AND THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS
1859 Kenneth Grahame is born on March 8 to Bessie Ingles Grahame and James Cunningham Grahame; the upper-middleclass family lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. Darwin’s The Origin of Species and Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities are published.1860 James moves his wife and three young children to Argyllshire, where he has taken the position of sheriff. The family first lives in the port town of Loch Fyne, then moves to another port town, Inveraray.1864 Bessie contracts scarlet fever after giving birth to her fourth child; Kenneth also comes down with the illness. When Bessie dies, James sends the children to live with their wealthy maternal grandmother in England, at her home in Cookham Dene, along the Thames in Berkshire; later Kenneth will use the setting in The Wind and the Willows.1865 Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is published.1866 Financial concerns cause Kenneth’s grandmother to move to a smaller house in Cranbourne. The children live with James in Inveraray for a little less than a year, the last time they will live with their father.1868 Kenneth and his brother William are sent to the private school St. Edward‘s, in Oxford, where Kenneth will spend the next seven years; he is an excellent student and gifted at sports.1871- George Eliot’s Middlemarch is published.1872 1876 Although Grahame would prefer to go on to college at Oxford University, his family decides he should work for his uncle while trying to secure a position at the Bank of England in London. Grahame is not happy about the move but pursues his work with dedication.1879 Grahame receives a post at the Bank of England as a “gentleman clerk,” which gives him a great deal of freedom and minimal