Editing Virginia Woolf (section)

=== Asham House (1911–1919) ===
[[File:VStephenKCox.jpg|thumb|upright|Virginia Stephen (L) with [[Katherine Laird Cox|Katherine Cox]], Asham 1912|alt=Virginia Stephen with Katherine Cox at Asham in 1912]]

During the later Bloomsbury years, Virginia travelled frequently with friends and family, to Dorset, Cornwall, and farther afield to Paris, Italy and Bayreuth. These trips were intended to prevent her from suffering exhaustion due to extended periods in London.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|p=236}} The question arose of her needing a quiet country retreat close to London to support her still-fragile mental health.{{sfn|Bell|1972|p=166}} In the winter of 1910 she and Adrian stayed at [[Lewes]] and started exploring Sussex's surrounding area.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|p=236}} She soon found a property in nearby [[Firle]], which she named "Little Talland House"; she maintained a relationship with that region for the rest of her life, spending her time either in Sussex or London.{{efn|Virginia was somewhat disparaging about the exterior of Little Talland House, describing it as an "eyesore" (Letter to Violet Dickinson 29 January 1911) and "inconceivably ugly, done up in patches of post-impressionist colour" (Letters, no. 561, April 1911).{{sfn|Wilkinson|2001}}}}{{sfn|Bell|1972|pp=166–167,227-252}}

In September 1911 she and Leonard Woolf found Asham House{{efn|Sometimes spelt "Asheham" or "Ascham".{{sfn|Woolf|1964|p=56}}}} nearby, and she and Vanessa took a joint lease on it.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|p=311}} Located at the end of a tree-lined road, the house was in a Regency-Gothic style, "flat, pale, serene, yellow-washed", remote, without electricity or water and allegedly haunted.{{sfn|Eagle|Carnell|1981|pp=9-10}}{{sfn|Lee|1997a|pp=311-312}} The sisters had two housewarming parties in January 1912.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|p=311}}

Virginia recorded the weekends and holidays she spent there in her Asham Diary, part of which was later published as ''A Writer's Diary'' in 1953. Creatively, ''[[The Voyage Out]]'' was completed there, as was much of ''[[Night and Day (Woolf novel)|Night and Day]]''.{{sfn|Asham|2018}} The house itself inspired the short story "A Haunted House", published in ''[[A Haunted House and Other Short Stories]]''.{{sfn|Woolf|1964|p=57}} Asham provided Virginia with much-needed relief from the London's fast-paced life and was where she found happiness that she expressed in her diary on 5 May 1919: "Oh, but how happy we've been at Asheham! It was a most melodious time. Everything went so freely; – but I can't analyse all the sources of my joy".{{sfn|Asham|2018}}

{{multiple image |header = Houses in Sussex| align = center | direction = horizontal | total_width =800 | float = none
|image1= Little Talland House.jpg|caption1= Little Talland House, [[Firle]] | alt1=Photo of Little Talland House, Firle, East Sussex. Leased by Virginia Woolf in 1911
|image2=Asheham House, nr Beddingham ca. 1914.jpg| caption2 = Asham House, [[Beddingham]] | alt2= Photo of Asham house in 1914
|image3=The Round House, Lewes, 2017.jpg|caption3=The Round House, Lewes |alt3=The Round House in Lewes
|image4=Monk's House, Rodmell, UK.jpg|caption4=[[Monk's House]], Rodmell |alt4=Monk's House in Rodmell}}
While at Asham, in 1916 Leonard and Virginia found a farmhouse about four miles away that they thought would be ideal for her sister. Eventually, Vanessa visited to inspect it, and took possession in October of that year, establishing it as a summer home for her family. The [[Charleston Farmhouse]] was to become the summer gathering place for the Bloomsbury Group.{{sfn|Bell|1972|loc=Vol II: 1915–1918}}{{page needed|date=June 2024}}