E X T E N S I O N LAMB HOUSE A few months before Henry James wrote The Turn of the Screw in 1897, he said in a letter to his brother: I am tired of moving from bad lodgings1 to expensive hotels, and would finally like a lowly2 refuge of my own . The footloose3 young American of the 1860 s had become a worldly London bachelor, but now, at fifty-five, he felt the need to prepare for his old age. He chose a house, called Lamb House, in Rye, in Sussex, on the south-east coast of England as his refuge, and a very charming one it was too! Henry James standing by the door It was not an easy decision to the garden (1898) for him, as he was afraid to leave the social life of London, and the strange sense of doom 4, which pulled him to buy the house, frightened him. He was afraid that the house would in a sense possess him, depress him, and make him a prisoner until his own death. He was also worried about financial matters, and in fact The Turn of the Screw provided him with enough money to rent the house without any problems. His lease5 was for twenty-one years, and he paid seventy pounds a year. Rye is a very pleasant little seaside port, with the ruins of an old castle, and is full of antique shops, bookshops and crafts. It also has one of the oldest and loveliest pubs in England, The Mermaid Inn , which has a secret stairway where smugglers used to meet. Lamb House was presented to The National Trust in 1950 by the wife of Henry s nephew, and is open to visitors from March to October. 1. lodgings: temporary accommodation. 2. lowly: modest, simple. 3. footloose: free to go and do what you like. 4. doom: a terrible event that you cannot avoid. 5. lease: a legal agreement which allows you to live in a house. 19