There, on 16 March 1864, his mother died from scarlet fever following the birth of her third son, Roland. Kenneth also caught the infection but recovered under the care of his maternal grandmother. Shortly after this the four children went to live with her at Cookham Dene in Berkshire. Their father stayed behind to mourn his wife and began to develop an increasing dependency on alcohol.
Grahame would later recall these few years at Cookham Dene with affection in his two collections of reminiscences, The Golden Age (1895) and Dream Days (1898). "Granny" Ingles may not have been the stereotypical doting grandmother--straitened financial circumstances and a stern Presbyterian nature undoubtedly mitigated against that--but the happy memories of those years were also, in part, the foundation for The Wind in the Willows. He and his brothers and sister first moved with their grandmother in 1866 to a smaller cottage after repairs became necessary to Cookham Dene, then back to their father's house when he unexpectedly summoned them home. The stay was less than a year. In the spring of 1867 their father resigned his post and went abroad, and the children were sent back to their grandmother.
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