West Humble
“We have resumed our original plan, and are going immediately to build a little cottage for ourselves. ..We mean to make this a property saleable or lettable for our Alex, and…MdA has fixed upon a field of Mr Lock’s which he will rent and of which Mr. Locke will grant him a lease of ninety years. …the situation of the field is remarkably beautiful. It is in the valley, between Mr Locke’s park and Dorking, and where land is so scarce, that there is not another possessor within many miles who would part, upon any terms with half-an-acre.”
-With the money Fanny received for “Camilla”, they could consider building a house for themselves.
The Victorian Web has an excellent summary of their lives from this time and I will quote it here:
When the Locks of Norbury Park offered to lease a plot of land on their spacious estate to the newly-wed D’Arblays, it must have seemed like a lifeline to the impecunious couple. But the success of Fanny’s second novel, Camilla (1796) was what enabled them to build on it — or, rather, near it, not on the plot originally offered, but on a field outside the park, so that one day (or so they hoped) it could be passed on to their son: “the situation of the field is remarkably beautiful,” Fanny reported to her father, telling him of her husband’s efforts to create the garden there:
“He dreams now of Cabbage Walks — potatoe Beds — Bean perfumes and peas’ blossoms” The d’Arblays called their new home Camilla Cottage, and moved into it in 1797 with high hopes, having a picnic in one of the bare rooms, with some bread, boiled eggs and a gardening knife, before their furniture arrived. Their little boy Alex galloped round the place using a stick as a make-believe horse, and all was excitement and triumph. Their own home at last, and in such beautiful surroundings, too.
The rural idyll was comparatively short-lived. General d’Arblay could not devote himself indefinitely to gardening. As soon as it seemed safe to do so, he went back to France, at first only planning to visit family and friends. His wife quickly retreated to Norbury Park to have company while she awaited his return. But less than a month after his safe arrival, he was off again, and this time his wife and son followed. It was to be a ten-year stay, for the Treaty of Amiens in 1801 proved only a respite from the Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, and the family was still in France when war broke out again.
When the Burneys finally returned to Camilla Cottage in 1812, their books and clothes were still intact, but the couple would never resume their life there. The house, they were informed by the new generation at Norbury Park, could not be passed on after all. It was sold. In 1919, it would be burnt down, apparently still containing some of their possessions, including the General’s Letter Book. It has since been replaced by a larger house called Camilla Lacey. However, there are some suggestions that at least part of the pre-1919 walls were incorporated into the neighbouring Burney House, to which Camilla Lacey was once attached. Certainly, the d’Arblays’ stay in this Surrey village has not been forgotten.
West Humble is said to be the setting for the Watson family in Jane Austen’s unfinished novel The Watsons.
My Trip to West Humble
West Humble is a very attractive village, with substantial, expensive houses especially around Camilla Drive and Chapel Lane. But there was not a soul around though there were alarms on most of the houses. Were the owners working in the City, wives playing tennis, doing the school run?
We walked up Camilla Drive past desirable houses set in lovely, well-maintained grounds. At the top where the road made a circle round a central plot, we saw the name, Camilla Lacey. We could stand at the gate of Camilla Lacey but alarms stopped our path towards the house which was hidden from the road by wonderful trees and shrubs. Back down the drive to Chapel Lane through the arch commemorating Fanny Burney with the Chapel of Ease which is attached to St. Michael’s, Mickleham to the left looking down over beautiful fields.
Even in Fanny’s day, the plot of land was outside Norbury Park in a valley towards Dorking and as Fanny said so desirable that no-one (but generous Mr Lock) would part with half an acre. The village is proud of the association with Fanny Burney.
