The French author Emile Zola stayed and wrote here while in exile during the Dreyfus case August 1898

Zola has been staying at the Oatlands Park Hotel, but he was soon spotted by a reporter from the Daily Mail. With the help of Vizetelly and Fernand Desmoulin he rented a furnished house 'Penn' at Oatlands Chase. src: Notes From Exile by Emile Zola