Samuel Palmer purchases a run-down cottage, nicknamed "Rat Abbey", and it is here that he lives from 1826 to 1835, depicting the area as a demi-paradise, mysterious and visionary, and often shown in sepia shades under moon and star light.

Here Palmer also associates with the group of William Blake-influenced artists known as The Ancients (including George Richmond and Edward Calvert).

They are among the few who ever see the Shoreham paintings since, as a result of attacks by critics in 1825, he only ever opens these early portfolios to selected friends.