[Rudyard Kipling, Nobel prize winning author and poet.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Rudyard Kipling') to Captain [Stowe?], concerning the his recent departure from Rottingdean (to Batemans) and continued interest in the Rottingdean Rifle Club.

2pp, 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged, fold marks. Twenty-nine lines of text in Kipling's neat and close hand. Text: Many thanks for your letter & enclosed slip. As you say, your competition is the First step in the right way: next comes the unknown range for the disappearing man. I am afraid you will find [masses?] of opposition from the 'crack' shots &c to whom the solemn ritual of [?] paint-box and all the rest of it has all the dignity of a 'sport'. Also the meagre scores will not 'look well in the papers'. But I'm glad you are making a start and I hope next season to have our RR.C Club man entered to the same sort of game. I have bought a house [Bateman's as heading] in the E. Edge of the county and have left Rottingdean but my interest in the Club remains. | The Mill-Dam is supposed to be pretty much the general situation at present - from fixed target shooting at known ranges to any other sort of old poppycock that you care to think. (Mill-Dam) He is referring to his Below the Mill Dam in which (someone suggests) Kipling is inveighing against those who resist the need for change, fail to understand the possibilities of new technology, deny the existence of enmity and danger, and generally take a complacent and relaxed view of life. Apparently unpublished.