ABSTRACT

Wiston House, near Steyning in Sussex, was barely further from London than Beaconsfield was. In that respect it met everyone’s stipulations. In another, it surpassed them. Standing at the top of a long drive curving up from near the village, on a noble site under the Downs near the Iron Age hill-fort of Chanctonbury Ring, Wiston House was several centuries older than Wilton Park: it was originally built in about 1575. Although much altered since then, it retained its main front, and at the back, alongside an originally 14th-century church, it had rows of stately chimneys and a range of mullioned windows overlooking the sloping lawns of the park. For a man as nostalgic for Oxford as Heinz Koeppler, it was instantly appealing. It might lack Matthew Arnold’s dreaming spires, but it was a perfect setting for aspiring dreams.