The Move to Oswalds in Bishopsbourne took place early in October 1919, during a railway strike. Thanks to Borys’s inventiveness—he managed to hire a lorry and get some porters to help in return for free beer— the move did not take too long, although even after two weeks Conrad was still complaining that the new house was unfit for normal use. Conrad spoke about the strike with contempt, insisting that the railwaymen were quite passive and interested only in resuming work as soon as possible; he does not seem to have noted that the strike ended with their victory.

Oswalds was a large house—the largest of all the houses occupied by Conrad; its present form dated from early eighteenth century, but some elements were of medieval origin, it was shaded by elm trees, with a garden surrounding it on three sides and walls overgrown with ivy. The only drawback—quite serious in Conrad’s opinion—was that the house was in a hollow enclosed by woods, and the only more distant view was of a cemetery adjoining the village’s Romanesque stone church.

On the ground floor, apart from some smaller rooms there were two drawing rooms, one large and one small, a dining room, Conrad’s study, and some smaller rooms; the bedrooms were on the first floor. Because the Conrads did not have enough furniture to fill such a large house, Grace Willard got another opportunity to display her talents. She selected two fireplaces (apparently by Adam), three second-hand Aubusson carpets, some old Italian upholstered furniture, “Spanish carved frames” and several other items. Conrad wrote to Pinker: “it seems to me I am dreaming a strange and aesthetic dream in the atmosphere of a curio shop. It’s very funny.”