Kenneth Grahame was born in Edinburgh in 1859 and brought up in Inverary until his mother died and he was sent to live with relatives in Berkshire. He was Secretary to the Bank of England when he and his wife sent their four-year-old son Alastair to spend the summer in Littlehampton with his nanny to escape the heat of London. Perhaps to assuage his guilt at parting with his son, whom he called Master Mouse, Grahame wrote him fifteen letters in the space of seven weeks. It was in these letters that he first began to describe the Adventures of Toad.
11 Durham Villas, London
10 May 1907
My Darling Mouse,
This is a birthday letter to wish you very many happy returns of the day. I wish we could have been all together, but we shall meet again soon and then we will have treats. I have sent you two picture-books, one about Brer Rabbit, from Daddy, and one about some other animals, from Mummy. And we have sent you a boat painted red, with mast and sails to sail in the round pond by the windmill – and Mummy has sent you a boat-hook to catch it when it comes ashore. Also Mummy has sent you some sand-toys to play in the sand with, and a card game. Have you heard of the Toad? He was never taken prisoner by the brigands at all. It was all a horrid low trick of his. He wrote that letter himself – the letter saying that a hundred pounds must be put in the hollow tree. And he got out of the window early one morning and went off to a town called Buggleton and went to the Red Lion Hotel and there he found a party that had just motored down from London and while they were having breakfast he went into the stable-yard and found their motor-car and went off in it without even saying Poop-poop! And now he has vanished and every one is looking for him, including the police. I fear he is a bad low animal.
Good-bye from
Your loving Daddy.