It's true to say there have been more floods in the last couple of years, which may be evidence of the effects of global warming with predicted wetter winters, but Rudyard Kipling was quite used to the garden flooding. According to the book 'O Beloved Kids: Rudyard Kipling’s Letters to His Children' (edited by Elliot L Gilbert, Zenith 1984), in October 1909 the author wrote to his son John who was away at public school:
“By midnight the water was at the south door of Bateman’s – lying in one level sheet right across the garden. It was very odd to see only half the yew hedges sticking up in the moonlight. At 1 o’clock I went into the kitchen to get something to eat”.
“I opened the cellar door and this is what I saw! Bottles and eggs and apples floating about in a foot of water. Well, it didn’t seem much good hanging about so we went to bed, and in the morning the water had gone off the lawns and we put on our rubber boots and began to take stock of the damage.”