LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. Class THE PORTFOLIO MONOGRAPHS ON ARTISTIC SUBJECTS WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS PUBLISHED MONTHLY No. 19 July, 1895 The Isle of Wight C. 7. CORNISH LONDON: SEELEY AND CO., LIMITED, ESSEX STREET, STRAND Sold by HATCHARD, 187 PICCADILLY PARIS: LIBRAIRIE GALIGNANI, 224 RUE DE RIVOLI. BERLIN : A. ASHER & Co., .13 UNTER DEN LINDEN. NEW YORK : MACMILLAN & Co. THE PORTFOLIO, THE AUTOTYPE COMPANY, LONDON, Rencwi:.. d for the excellence of its process of lii^h-chiss BOOK ILLUSTRATION, Adopted by the Trustees of the British Museum, the Learned Societies, and the leading Publishers. /';/< v.. aihi Specimtns en application. AUTO-GRAVURE, The Autotype process adapted to Photographic Engraving on copper. Copies of Paintings by Holman Hunt, Kchvin Douglas, Herbert Schmalz, Haigli Wo od, I 1 '. Hranijwyii ; <>f Portraits by Sir fohn Millais, K.A. ; Holl, R.A<>Ouless, K.A. ; Petiie. 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LONDON, W. VENETIAN GLASS WEDDING PRESENTS TABLE & GENERAL USE. A Choice Collection at Moderate Prices may always be seen at the Gallery of the VENICE &MURANO GLASS CO., 30 ST. JAMES'S STREET, S.W. NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS. All communications respecting Advertise- ments for the ' PORTFOLIO ' must be addressed to MR. JOHN HART, 6 Arundel Street. Strand, London, W.C. THE ISLE OF WIGHT By C. J. CORNISH Author of '''Wild England of 'To-day ," " The New Forest" &c. LONDON SEELEY AND CO. LIMITED, ESSEX STREET, STRAND NEW YORK, MACMILLAN AND CO. I8 95 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PLATES PAGE Freshwater Gate. Etched by John Fullwood Frontispiece Isle of Wight : The Fleet leaving Portsmouth. After E. Duncan . . . to face 12 Bonchurch. Etched by John Fullwood, R.B.A 48 Sandown Bay. Engraved by Thomas Huson, R.I 66 ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT Yarmouth. From a drawing by R. Serle 9 Smugglers at Freshwater Cave. From an old print 14. The Needles from Alum Bay. By R. Serle 17 The Needles from ScratchelPs Bay. From a photograph by Messrs. F. Frith & Co. 19 Carisbrook Castle. After Luke Clennell 22 Entrance to Carisbrook Castle. From an engraving by T. Stowers, 1785 .. . . 25 King Charles I.'s Window, Carisbrook Castle. By R. Serle 29 Newport. By John Fullwood 31 Cowes. By John Fullwood 33 West Cowes Castle. After Peter De Wint 35 Ouarr Abbey. By John Fullwood 37 218396 4 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Shore near Ventnor. After Peter De Wint 41 The UnderclifF, near Ventnor. By John Fullwood 43 Blackgang Chine. After Peter De Wint 45 Brighstone Church. By R. Serle 47 Luccombe Chine. By John Fullwood 49 Shalfleet Church. By John Fullwood 54 Ryde One Hundred Years Ago. From an old print after T. Walmsly 56 Carved Tombstones and Dial, Godshill. By R. Serle 60 Brading Haven. By John Fullwood 64 The Manor House, Yaverland. By John Fullwood 74 THE ISLE OF WIGHT CHAPTER I YARMOUTH AND THE " ISLE OF FRESHWATER" The " King of the Isle of Wight' 1 '' The island a separate region, politically and geographi- cally Its early " Lords " Repeated French invasions Its gallant resistance Its towns burnt Their recovery after the fortification of the island by Henry fill. How Henry VIII. obtained the money for this The melancholy history of Yarmouth Its Castle Revival of the town Its present condition Lord Holmes The " Isle of Fresh-water " Its coast and cliffs A visit to the seafowl in the Freshwater clijfs Totland Bay Alum Bay The Needles ScratcheWs Bay The great precipices Number of rock-fowl A cragsman on the cliff face. WHEN Henry VI., with his own hands, crowned Henry Beauchamp Duke of Warwick, " King of the Isle of Wight," he was not so mad as is commonly believed. For though, as my Lord Coke observed in his Institutes, the king has no power to transfer the sovereignty of any part of his dominions, the Isle of Wight seems marked out, both by its position and history, for separate and peculiar consideration. It is the only part of England which has again and again been devastated by foreign invasion. There alone, on British soil, are towns and ports to which the population has never fully returned after their homes were sacked and burned by French and Spanish soldiers. The islanders, on the other hand, have more than once rallied and repulsed their invaders unaided, and for centuries maintained a separate military organisation, which often baffled such attempts at the moment of disembarkation. Whether held by hereditary petty sovereigns, as it was until the days of Edward I., or governed by wardens and captains nominated by the Crown, 6 THE ISLE OF WIGHT the island has always enjoyed in some sort a peculiar form of government, and its recent recognition as a separate county is justified on all grounds, political and historical, as well as geographical. William the Conqueror granted the island to William FitzOsborne, " to be held as freely as he himself held the realm of England." After a brief period of forfeiture, the first of a series of new " lords " was found in the person of Richard de Redvers, Earl of Devon, to whom the island was granted by Henry I., and in whose family it remained until the last of his descendants, the Lady Isabella de Fortibus, Countess of Albemarle and Devon, Lady of the Isle of Wight, and Chamberlain of the Exchequer of England, after the strongest, and as her enemies alleged, the most arbitrary reign of any of her family, was on her deathbed induced to convey the island to Edward I. for the sum of 6,000 marks, a sum computed by Sir R. Worsley, in 1781, to be equal to 60,000 pounds of our money. The resolute countess would not part with her property until she knew herself to be almost in extremis, and then voluntarily ordered the deed to be prepared, sent her woman for her great seal, and delivered seisin of the island to the king by handing to the Bishop of Durham, who acted for Edward I., a pair of gloves which she held in her hand. She then signed her will, was shrived by her confessor, and died between midnight and morning. The unity of " The Wight " was not lost by this change of authority from the "lords" to the Crown. Constant reprisals by French fleets for English invasions, levies en masse of the islanders under their wardens or captains, sometimes to do battle at the water's edge, sometimes to rally in Carisbrook Castle as a last city of refuge, taught them to rely on themselves for the right to live, from the days of Richard II. to the last French descent two years before the death of Henry VIII. It was not till the reign of the Stuarts that the resident great families began to build the fine old manor houses which, like Yaverland, Knighton, and Mottstone, are now among the most ancient buildings in the island, and with the notable exception of Carisbrook Castle and some of the churches, it may be said that every town and building in the island has grown up under the protection of the forts with which Henry VIII. surrounded its coast. The economic results of the confiscation of the property of the Church by Henry VIII. are one of the puzzles of Tudor finance. The disendowment of the monasteries, when the THE ISLE OF WIGHT 7 enormous estates of the larger foundations were all thrown into the market together, must have reduced the price of land to a minimum, and given the least margin of profit to the Crown. The nobles and merchants who bought the abbey lands made good bargains, and the king, representing the State, made bad ones. Still, the sums of ready money so made must have been very large, and it is not easy to discover what became of it. The statement made by historians is that with part of the sums so raised the king endowed six new bishops' sees, and that part was spent on the fortification of the coast. The latter project sounds rather modern in conception, and no one seems to have taken particular trouble to inquire how far it was carried into effect. As a matter of fact the scheme was a patriotic and statesmanlike idea, and was executed on a scale which, considering the times, was both costly and complete. The sufferings of the Isle of Wight from the pirate forays of the French were the object-lesson which impressed the necessity for this measure on Henry VIII. and his advisers, and though the whole scheme of coast defence was applied far more elaborately to the mainland shore by the construction and armament with cannon of the castles of Deal, Walmer, Southsea, Calshot, and Hurst, and the fortification with artillery of Dartmouth and Plymouth, the good results in the case of the Isle of Wight are more easily shown. The apologists for Henry VIII. might instance the case of the ancient port of Yarmouth, at the mouth of the estuary which cuts off the "Isle of Freshwater" on the south from the centre of the island. It stands at the narrowest point of the Solent channel, opposite Hurst Castle, exposed to the attacks of any squadron approaching round the Needles. In 1277 it was entirely burnt by the French. From that date the unfortunate little town was marked out by the- French as the most convenient spot for reprisals on the English coast. It seems to have ceased to exist for a time, actually and politically. In the reign of Edward I. it sent a member to Parliament, but the privilege is said to have been suspended till the days of Elizabeth. This was not the case. It was too poor to pay its member's expenses. In Sir John Oglander's MS. the following note occurs : " Yarmouth is the ancientest borough town that sendeth burgesses to the Parliament for our island .... But it may be through poverty, as not being able to undergo the charge 8 THE ISLE OF WIGHT of sending burgesses (for all then maintained the burgesses), they lost their privileges." The last attack made on Yarmouth by the French was in 1524, when they sacked and burnt the town, and carried off the church bells to Cherbourg, where they are said still to be kept , with the name "Yarmouth" legible on the metal. But by 1537 the king's engineers completed their new castle for the defence of Yarmouth. Church property was applied to this object in a very practical manner. Like the fortresses of Hurst and Calshot, across the water, it was built from the hewn stones of Beaulieu Abbey Church, and remains, in perfect structural repair, the most interesting of the earliest fortifications built in England for the defence of towns by artillery. It was called a " block-house," but was far larger and more formidable than the name suggests. In front was a square stone platform, mounted with eight large cannon to command the sea. This portion looks like a modern fort ; but the quarters behind it for the men and officers are picturesque stone Tudor houses, with carved finials and corbels, and with remains of others of Elizabeth's time, built of brick, not unlike some of the minor offices in Hampton Court. The back of the fort is again severely practical, containing a well-built vaulted powder magazine, and the garrison kitchen, with a huge fireplace, and " lifts " to send the food up to the men's quarters above. On the east side is a finely carved Royal Arms, supported, not by the lion and unicorn, but by the lion and griffin. The whole building is an interesting mixture of feudalism, Tudorism, and modernism. Its erection marked the end of French invasions of the island. The town grew up again under cover of its guns, and by the time of James I. had so increased that he had granted it a charter and a corporation. In this charter it is stated that " Since the building of the castle the town is better inhabited than before, and that the Mayor and Burgesses, esteeming the charters before granted them insufficient to authorise them in using their liberties and immunities, had petitioned the king to make and new create them a body politic and corporate." This the king did, and Charles II. presented the corporation with a fine silver-gilt mace and seal. This, with the ancient charters, and a curious emblem in the form of a large glove fixed on a pole, which was set up for two days during a fair held on St. James's Day, to indicate that for I 4 THE ISLE OF WIGHT n that time no one should on any account be committed to prison, are all that remains to attest the ancient state of the corporation. The existence of the tiny borough was denounced in Parliament, and this picturesque survival has been turned into a modern " town trust," though the old municipal insignia are still preserved. Close by the Castle is the fine house formerly used by the Governor of the island. It is a fine example of an early Stuart mansion, panelled throughout, and with a beautiful central staircase, with the landings laid in parquet, perhaps one of the oldest examples of this kind of flooring. Lord Holmes, the conqueror of New Amsterdam, from whose cap- tures of Guinea Gold the first guineas were coined, lived in that house, after he was made Governor of the Isle of Wight by Charles II. In the church, which, like the rest of the town, was rebuilt under the protection of the Castle, is Holmes's monument. It is said to have been part of the prize cargo of a French ship captured by him, and to have been intended as a statue of Louis XIV. of France. While it was being taken in an unfinished state to France, for the head to be modelled from the august features of the " Roi Soleil," it was taken by one of Holmes's ships. Whether this be true or not, the present head is probably a very careful, and is certainly a very spirited, portrait of the piratical Irishman, who, after serving Charles L, the French, the Germans, and the Dutch, conquered New York for England. The harsh, im- perious features are chiselled with wonderful vigour and force, shaded by the Admiral's hat of the Restoration half-cocked hat, half-plumed helmet an interesting example of ancient naval costume. It is said that seven churches were burnt by the French. Modern investigation reduces the number to four, one having been on the site of the Castle, and one in Fort Street. The writer was . taken into a small house in this street, where a boatman and his family were having tea, and shown, in the wall of the little parlour, two low ancient pillars, papered over, which had formed the doorway of the old church or chapel, and were now in the party-wall of the house. Iron shot, from 4 Ib. to 9 Ib. weight, recently picked up at the back of the modern town, are probably relics of the French bombardment in 1524. The picturesqueness of this little town, set at the mouth of the Yar estuary, with its miniature quay, little ships, fortress, " palace," and church, is 12 THE ISLE OF WIGHT: not less than its interest as an historical object-lesson. From the west the river is crossed by long narrow bridges and causeways, leading to the castle and the quay. The estuary itself is not the least beautiful part of the whole, and from its correspondence, not only in name but in form, with the river which cuts off the down and village of Bembridge from the centre of the island at the east corner, is a very rare and curious instance of that occasional symmetry in physical geography which Herodotus imagined was so far a law of nature that the course of the Nile in Africa ought to conform to that of the Danube in Europe. Each river has the same name, the u Yar." Each runs from south to north, and each cuts off a high chalk down, and incloses a territory almost exactly similar' in geographical features. The Freshwater Down on the west exactly corresponds to the Bembridge Down on the east, the long precipice of Freshwater u White- cliff" with Bembridge " Whitecliff," Alum Bay and its sands with Whitecliff Bay and its sands, the beds being almost identical, though at Bembridge the colours are less vivid, while the two peninsulas are bounded on the north-east and north-west respectively by wide estuaries. The reclamation of Brading Haven, and the embanking of the eastern river Yar have somewhat altered the former lines. A map of the island, published in 1610, shows the ancient conditions very clearly. The eastern peninsula is there called the Isle of Bembridge, the western the Isle of Freshwater ; and twelve years later it was proposed to make the latter into a real island by cutting a trench to the sea at Freshwater Gate, and to fortify it as a refuge and citadel in case of an invasion. Either of these portions might serve as an epitome of the general scenery and character of the whole island, containing, as they do, examples of the high downs, chalk precipices, estuaries and composite cliffs, and lovely views of sea, land, and Solent-stream. Yet the differ- ences are sufficient to make each of these peninsulas worth separate study. Take, for instance, the estuaries of the eastern and western Yar Rivers. The former has recently been reclaimed in anticipation of the work of Nature. The estuary of the western Yar is in great part already recovered from the sea by natural processes. The little river which formed the valley rises within a few yards of the southern THE ISLE OF WIGHT 13 sea, at Freshwater Gate, but turning its back on the waters of the channel, flows due north towards the Solent. As its whole course is less than four miles, with a very gradual fall, it is open to the tide, and becomes a salt-water estuary within half a mile of its source. But the slob-lands on either side are rapidly being converted into firm ground. Part is covered with rough sedge-grass, which, except at high tides, is never under water. The wetter parts are thick beds of reeds, like those seen by the Norfolk Broads, between whose roots the decay of water plants is rapidly forming soil. Beyond this are squashy meadows, and outside these again rich grass lands. Looking up the estuary at sunset the scene across this mixed area of water and land is singularly rich in colour. The sunset clouds are painted again in crimson and gold on violet pools and windings of the river, and these are set and bordered with masses of yellow reeds. On either side lie the low hills, and at the head of the estuary the long aisles and tower of Freshwater Church, backed by the lofty ridge of Freshwater Down and Beacon. The gap called Freshwater Gate separates this down on the west from the Afton Down on the right. Between these lies the little bay, with the rounded shoulders of the down on either side, and the white chalk precipices rising in curve above curve, till they swing backwards towards the crowning heights of the Beacon Hill on the right, and Chale Bay on the left. Under the great down lies the home for so many years of Lord Tennyson, and between the western precipice of Scratchell's Bay and Yarmouth are the Needles, Alum Bay, and Totland Bay, making with the Freshwater Cliffs themselves perhaps the finest and most repre- sentative line of clifF scenery on the English coasts. A visit to the seafowl colony in Freshwater Cliffs at daybreak is an island experience never forgotten. Early rising is essential for this form of morning call. On the last occasion on which the writer left Totland Bay to visit the seafowls' home the sun had not yet topped the cliffs, and the waters of the tiny bay were lying still and gray in the morning light. The crews of the small yachts moored off the bay were still asleep, the lights were not yet out in the lanterns on the masts, and were shining like dying stars. The mist was curling round the hollows above the cliffs, and still hid the sides of Freshwater Down. All the long coast line of the New Forest was hidden by a fog-bank, 1 4 THE ISLE OF WIGHT and the island fortress of Hurst Castle rising above the sea opposite was the only object visible beyond the narrow circle of the bay. As the oars struck the water the first sunbeams streamed from over the cliff behind, and sent a long beam of light across the Solent. The batteries and lighthouse of Hurst flushed into rosy pink, and the southern chalk wall of Alum Bay, the Needles, and the Needles light were touched by the sun. The beams caught all the lines and mould- Bmugglen at Freshwater Cave. From an old print. ings of the chalk, the gray haze " dislimbed " and revealed the structure of the rocks and precipice. At sunset the brilliant sand- cliffs at the bottom of Alum Bay are the natural feature which most attracts the eye. At sunrise these are in shadow, and the dominant note is struck by the chalk precipice which forms three-quarters of the bay, and by the jagged outline of the Needles. The rock to which these first owed their name has disappeared. It was a sharp spine of THE ISLE OF WIGHT 15 chalk, nearly 100 feet in height, which fell in 1764. It is probable that it was struck by lightning, just as the extreme point of the mainland cliff was recently shattered in a midnight thunderstorm and now lies in ruins on the beach. But three ot the rocks remain, and the front edge of the main cliff is so similar in structure that it must in time become separated and form a fourth rock in the chain. Seen from the north the Needles and the parent cliff are like the lower jawbone of some sea monster, with the teeth awash. Nearer this resemblance in- creases, for the rocks do not rise squarely from their bases, but slope to a cutting edge. Between the inner rock and the cliff lies the narrow O D gate which leads, by one of the sudden changes only known in coast scenery, and rare even there, from the bright colours and soft outlines of Alum Bay to the grandest chalk precipice of Southern England. The Needle rocks are a kind of propyl .-*afcf=5 Eroding Haven. By John Fullwood. improvement on the ancient mud-flats. It has added to the Isle of Wight what seems a piece of Holland, covered with green pasture and grazing cattle. This area is as mu9h withdrawn from the intrusion of man as the old lagoon ; for as on the mud-flats there were no roads, no rights- of-way, and no footpaths, so the reclamation is a roadless district, secured absolutely to the use of the occupiers, and incidentally to the wild-fowl which swarm by its shallow pools and drains. The broad embanked river runs straight through the centre, and divides into two the level which lies like a green sea between the ring of surrounding hills and the harbour-bank. In this river, the waters of the ancient reclamations THE ISLE OF WIGHT 65 higher up the valley collect during high-water, when the pressure from the sea automatically shuts the sluices, and pour out during low-tide, when the pressure of the sea is removed, through the iron gates, near which lie, with the grooves still sound and sharply cut, parts of the sluices made for Sir Hugh Myddelton of English oak in the year 1621. The general shape of the reclamation is an oval, with one of the smaller ends facing the sea and the other abutting on ancient dams near Brading, two miles higher up the valley. The whole of this has been converted into firm, dry land ; neither is its quality so inferior as Sir Hugh Myddelton judged. Possibly the improvement in the seventeen years during which the old sea-bottom has been exposed to sun and rain, has been pro- portionately more rapid than in the ten in which it was exposed to the air after 1620. Then half the area was described as consisting of " light, running sand of little worth," though the upper portion promised to become valuable pasture. Those advocates of reclamation of land from the sea, who propose to " leave it to Nature " when the sea has once been barred out, can see at Brading and Bembridge what it is exactly that Nature does, and how far art can help to make old sea-bottom into pasture for cattle, and even into a playground for men and women, in seventeen years. It must be remembered that in this case Nature has been hurried, and made to do her work before her time. Left to itself, the harbour would have silted up in the course of centuries, and the pastures would have grown of themselves on land already covered with the alluvial mould. As it is, the sea was swept from the land, which had to take its chance as it was mud, sand, shingle, or cockle-beds, just as they came. There was not even an earthworm on the whole six hundred acres to move the soil and help the rain to wash the salt out of it. The wonder is not that the change has taken place so slowly, but that the change from a soil supporting marine vegetable growth to a soil largely covered with grass, clover, and trefoil, has matured so quickly. What was once the head of the bay is now good pasture covered with cattle and letting for 303. an acre there are one hundred and fifty acres of this good ground. Nature had already prepared it in part for it was mud washed from the valley above and still preserves in contour, though covered with grass, the creeks and " fleets " in which the tide rose and fell. All round the fringes of the flat, where it joins the old shore, the 66 THE ISLE OF WIGHT earthworms have descended and made a border of fair soil. On one side sewage has been run into the hungrier soil, and there, on a natural level, the true use and place of such experiments is seen. Three crops of grass a year are cut from ground which otherwise would not fetch more than 53. an acre a hint, perhaps, for the disposal of some of the London "effluent." There remains a portion of dead, sour greensand on which no herbage grows, though the advance of soil and grass may be noted, like the gradual spread of lichen on a tree. Each patch of rushes, each weed and plantain, gathers a little soil round its roots or leaves, and the oasis spreads until all is joined and made one with the better ground. A cattle-farm and nursery garden occupy the centre of the seaward curve. The farm is already surrounded by rich grasses, clover, and sweet herbage, and the garden is a wonder of fertility. Not only vegetables, but roses, chrysanthemums, carnations, lavender, and other garden flowers are there reared in profusion ; and in the winter masses of mauve veronica are in blossom. In walking over what is now good pasture, the evidences of the recent nature of all this agricultural fertility crop up on every side. Where the turf lies in knolls and hillocks, the sea-shells may still be seen lying bleached or purple among the roots of the grass, and what would be taken for snail-shells elsewhere are found to be little clusters of the periwinkles and mussels for which Brading Haven was once famous. But perhaps the greatest success in the conversion of the old harbour to daily use is the present condition of the " light, running sand" near the sea. This sand must have a stratum of clay beneath it, for groves of poplar trees planted on it are now in vigorous growth. But for some years the land lay barely covered with cup-moss, lichen, and thin, poor grass, a haunt of rabbits and shore-birds. It is now converted into a golf-ground, and studded at short intervals with level lawns of fine turf for " putting greens," which daily extend their area, and promise before long to convert the " running sands " into a beautiful and park- like recreation ground. The beauty of the whole scene is much increased by the number of half-wild swans, which are constantly in movement, either swimming upon the pools and streams, or flying to and from the sea. These swans are among the natural agents busied in aiding the reclamation of the land. They feed almost entirely upon the weeds which would otherwise choke up the dykes, and it is believed that two THE ISLE OF WIGHT 67 swans do as much work in keeping the waterways free and open as could be done by a paid labourer. The history and fortunes of a given area of land are the constant subject of story. The rise and fall of the importance of a particular part of the sea, except perhaps as constituting a fishery, has seldom been made the theme of a historian. Yet there are certain areas of sea off the English coasts which have an average population much greater than that of the adjacent land, and have maintained this pre-eminence for centuries. There are the great roadsteads off the English coasts, places in which ships and their crews congregate as naturally for food, shelter, or refit, as do the sea-fowl off certain parts of the coast. The proximity of a great harbour is not a necessary feature of such roadsteads. The fleets of vessels which in certain winds lie off the " Downs " in the Channel have little or no communication with the shore. But usually the roadstead lies off a harbour, and the permanence of the port makes the occupation of the adjacent sea a matter of course, so long as the harbour continues to be used. For some reason this has not been the case at Portsmouth and Spithead. St. Helen's Roads, off St. Helen's Point, and opposite the mouth of the old Brading Haven, now Bembridge Harbour, was once the favourite anchoring ground of the British fleets when about to leave for foreign service ; and their communications with the island were almost as frequent and important as with Portsmouth itself. The fleets used to leave Spithead and anchor off St. Helen's, sending to Bembridge, at the point where a spring of fresh water runs down from the sloping cliff to the sea, to fill their water casks, and to the little village of Bembridge itself for their fresh meat, so long as they remained, which was taken out daily to the ships in " row-barges." Hence the old inn was originally called the " Row-Barge ; " and the country people, farmers, and village tradesfolk profited greatly by the presence of the fleet. For a time the Isle of Wight held the place for which it seemed naturally suited in those days, of a victualling-ground for the minor needs of the fleet. Sir John Oglander, long before this, had foreseen this possibility, though he did not expect the development which brought the ships to the mouth of the harbour which lay almost in touch with his own park at Nunwell. He proposed that a new port and road should be E 2 68 THE ISLE OF WIGHT made at Cowes for a "rendezvous." "If the country would have so much discretion as to make good use of that harbour, as first to have an honest man to be captain there, to build storehouses, to have by a joint store of all provision, and to have that their rendezvous, and to victuall there, they need no other market nor means to make the island happy and fortunate." The first account of a British fleet lying for a long period off St. Helen's is preserved in the Fleming Collection at Rydal Hall, and gives the list of ships and " order of array " for an expected battle with the French in 1545. Henry VIII. , only two years before his death, drifted into war with both France and Scotland on the burning question of the betrothal of the baby princess, Mary Queen of Scots, to Edward the Prince of Wales. Henry was at that time in the position of a tenant for life of a large estate, who has exhausted the savings of his ancestors and his own credit. He had only two more years to live, but the national, or rather the royal, exchequer was drained. All his father's savings were spent. The whole of the Church property had already been sold in the greatest possible hurry at the lowest possible price. The last financial expedient of debasing the coinage till the proportion of base metal was as four to six, had brought nothing in, and destroyed credit ; and Henry, in his old age, found himself threatened with a French invasion, and without means to equip a sufficient fleet. The Isle of Wight was, as usual, marked for one of the first objectives of the French. The people were warned, the watch-fires laid, Carisbrook Castle victualled and armed, and a fleet, partly equipped from England and partly, as it would seem, hired from the Baltic, was stationed in St. Helen's Roads as a partial protection. The following quaint document gives the list of ships, with indications of the place from which the foreign vessels were hired. It did not amount to more than 100 sail, whereas the French had 200, besides galleys. "A.D. 1545. Orders concerning the fleet. Thes be the shepes apoynted for the furste front of the wauntiguard [vanguard]. " In primes. The Great Arragosea [? the Mary Rose], the Sampson Lubyke, 1 the Trenyte of Danske [Trinity of Dantzic], the Mary of 1 Lubyke signifies that the ship came from Lubeck ; Danske = of Dantzic ; Hanbrakc = of Hamburg. THE ISLE OF WIGHT 69 Hanbrake, the Pelicane, the Murryan [the Mary Anne], the Sepiar of Nanske. " The second rancke of the vauntward : The Harry-Gracy-a-adewe [This name was evidently a severe trial to the spelling of the naval officer who drew up the memorandum. He means the Harry, Grace a Dieu, Henry VIII.'s largest battleship.] The Venichean [Venetian], the Peter Pomygarnate [Pomegranate], the Pansys, the Create Galley, the Swepstacke, the Mennyon [the Minion], the Sallow, the New Barke, the Saule Argaly. " The iij rancke of the vauntward : The Berste Denar [what can this mean ?] the Facon Lyfelay, the Harry Brestow [of Bristol], the Trenyte Rynmgar \?~\ the Mary Jeames [Mary James], the Pelgrim of Dartmouthe, the Mary Gorge of Rye [Mary George of Rye], the Thomas Topkynes [Thomas Tompkins], the Jhorges Ereyges [George Brydges], the Ane Lyfelay [Anne Lively], the Jhon the Evangeleste, the Thomas Madely, the Lartyche, the Crystofer Tennet, the Mary Fortune, the Mary Marten, the Trenytye Brestow'' " Galleys and shepes " on the right and left wings were also named for service, including even pinnaces from the Baltic the " Runygar pinnes " looks like an attempt at " Reinecke," and is clearly German- down to " iij botes of Rye." This " scratch " fleet was all the protection on which the islanders could count besides their new forts, some of which were not completed, and the English Admiral, who seems to have had the proper instinct as to the value of a " fleet in being " for the protection of the country from invasion by sea, resolved to do exactly what Admiral Colomb and Captain Mahan have concluded was the right course under such cir- cumstances to keep his fleet in observation ofF St. Helen's, where it was fairly protected by the sands and shoals ; just as Lord Torrington proposed to do when a superior French fleet threatened the Isle of Wight when William III. was away fighting the rebels in Ireland. 1 Lord Torrington was forced to fight, and be beaten, by the imperative orders of the Queen. Apparently Henry VIII.'s admiral was also pressed by superior authority to fight, and lose the advantage which 1 Torrington was lying in St. Helen's Roads when the news came that the French fleet was anchored in Freshwater Bay. yo THE ISLE OF WIGHT a masterly inaction would have secured. The order of the fleet given above was made in pursuance of a decision to force a battle " which, upon the King's determination, should be on Monday, the loth of August." If the fleets had been equal in numbers, and the fate of the island in no way concerned, the directions for manoeuvres during the en- gagement might have commended themselves. Under the circumstances though, they are an interesting evidence of the very modern character of the seamanship of the day ; they seem based on the assumption that the fleets were even in numbers, though the French force was double that of the English. The instructions given were most precise ; there was to be half a cable length between the ships. The front rank (" the wauntigarde ") was to make sail straight to the front of the battle, pass through, and make a short return to the centre, having special regard to the course of the second rank. The ships of the second and third ranks were to lay aboard the principal ships of the enemy, the Admiral being reserved for my Lord Admiral. Every ship of the first rank was to carry a St. George's Cross upon the foretopmast during the fight. Those in the second rank were to carry one upon the main mast, and those in the third rank on the " messel maste top " (mizzen top). The wings were to wait and observe the issue of the battle, and " give succour as they shall see occasion." Probably the Admiral thought he knew his business better than the king's advisers at Whitehall, for he did not fight any such battle as was sketched in the instructions. He remained in St. Helen's Roads, until the arrival of the French fleet of two hundred sail, and then engaged them partially in the hope of getting them entangled in dangerous waters. The cannonading lasted for two days, and the Mary Rose was sunk. It seems evident that the English were driven from St. Helen's, and that the French were for some time off the island, and able to make partial descents. In the great war at the end of the last century, St. Helen's Roads were in 1797 the scene of what is known to history as the "Mutiny at Spithead." 1 The first refusal of the crews of the fleet to sail was 1 See an interesting account read by Mr. G. Long, before the Portsmouth Literary Society, published in the Portsmouth Times, Dec. 2, 1893. THE ISLE OF WIGm 71 after the order to leave Spithead. But after the Admiralty had made certain concessions, the fleet weighed and anchored at St. Helen's. There the mutiny broke out afresh. Every ship refused to sail, when Lord Bridport made the signal to leave for Brest, because the Admiralty had taken no steps to fulfil their promises. The u delegates" assembled, and proceeded to the London, Admiral Colpoys's ship, with the intention of holding their convention there. The Admiral ordered them to sheer off, which they refused to do. He then ordered the marines to fire into the boats, which they did, killing five men and wounding six. On this becoming known, the seamen rushed in crowds up the hatchways, overpowered the officers, and disarmed the marines. They then seized the first lieutenant, Mr. Peter Boven, who had shot and killed a seaman who had unlashed one of the guns and was pro- ceeding to turn it on the quarter-deck. Admiral Colpoys then took the full responsibility on himself, and, fully expecting to be hanged by the mutineers, made his will and wrote a final letter to Lord Howe explaining what had happened. The seamen, however, delivered him up to the Mayor of Portsmouth for a civil trial ! It was not until the arrival of Lord Howe at St. Helen's, with the fullest assurances that all promises made by the Government should be fulfilled, and that all the mutineers would be pardoned, that the crews returned to order and obedience. The gain to the health of the neighbourhood, which Sir John Oglander observed was the result of the few years' reclamation of Brading Haven in his day, and which must be even more marked after the permanent reclamation of the mudflats now effected, has not caused any loss of beauty in the existing harbour of Bembridge. The bright, clear waters are no longer a mere covering for weltering mud exposed during the greater part of every tide. The curving dyke, quay, and pier, which form the defence of the reclamation are washed by deep water. The harbour runs back some distance inland so as to form a miniature lake, and is the head-quarters of that modern and charming development of yachting, in which the owner manages and sails his own boat. The harbour looks like a basin specially built to hold these pretty little toys, which in rough weather can be raced round the inner waters, and at other times sail out boldly into the Solent or towards the open Channel. 72 THE ISLE OF WIGHT A recent development of this small yacht racing awards the prize entirely to skill in seamanship apart from the inevitable accidents of wind or tide. A club owns a number of sailing boats of identical build and rig. The members thus start even, so far as the ship is concerned, and the contest resolves itself into a friendly rivalry in the art of sailing and steering. A dozen of these boats, with their yellow, tanned sails, dancing over the waters towards the fort on the sand spit, or racing round the harbour while the waves are toppling outside, form a new and dainty feature in the harbour landscape. At the head of the new haven is an ancient tide- mill. This is worked by the outflow of water carried into two very large ponds at high tide. It was originally built by Sir Hugh Myddelton, and is still worked, but the size of the small lakes necessary to accumu- late enough water to drive the wheel after the ebb has begun to flow raises doubts whether the use of " tidal energy " is ever likely to be a financial success. But the old mill is a picturesque object at the head of the harbour ; there the swans assemble to eat the grain which may have fallen into the water where the sacks are unloaded ; and the cormorants at high tide dive almost beneath its walls in search of the eels which make their way towards the in-fall of the fresh stream. As the tide ebbs they fly out to sit on the buoys which mark the entrance to the harbour, and at the same time the swans which are feeding inland in the reclaimed portion of the haven take wing and fly in pairs, or even in larger numbers, over the harbour out to sea. The sight and sound of the swans in flight is one of the most picturesque accompaniments of a sail in Bembridge harbour. They fly with rapid beats of the wing, high enough to clear the masts of both yachts and country craft in the basin, each stroke of their wings pro- ducing a musical, ringing sound, something like that of a tubular bell. If the rest of the island disappeared, the " Isle de Bembridge " as it is called on the excellent old maps which were made in France with a view to its invasion and conquest, would still give a very accurate idea of the general character of the whole of " the Wight." It has its harbour and estuary, its river, rising close to the southern shore, like the western " Yar," and running northwards toward the Solent, and in THE ISLE OF WIGHT: 73 its land contour presents all the typical features of the island. Near the harbour mouth the low cliff is covered with trees almost to where the pebbles touch its foot, and the pretty houses look on the blue sea set between groves of Mediterranean pines. The eastern point, called the Foreland, rises above a long and dangerous reef of black rocks called Bembridge Ledge. But the fields are cultivated to the very edge of the sea, and " Foreland Farm " with its tall elms, com- fortable barns, stables and cow-houses, and carefully tilled arable fields sown with the usual root and corn crops to the brow of the cliff, is no more modified in its appearance and management than if it stood in the centre of the island. At the back of the Bembridge peninsula are White Cliff Bay, another and not less beautiful Alum Bay, and the splendid ridge of Bembridge Down running, just as Freshwater Down does, parallel to the sea, with its southern side scarped into an immense precipice of glittering chalk. Until recently there was not a single house visible from Whitecliff Bay, and at present the number is limited to a single building, much beaten by winter storms. The cliffs of this beautiful semicircle corre- spond in their general order to those of Alum Bay ; but the clay slopes to the left and centre are firmer, steeper, and covered with a rich growth of golden grass, brambles, flowers, and waving " mare's tail," and in other places with masses of blackthorn, and beds of scarlet and yellow osiers. The bright coloured sands which lie between the clay and the chalk are less brilliant and show fewer colours than those at Alum Bay. The vertical strata are also thicker, and stand in peaked scarps, between each of which and the next is a " chine " deep in bracken and set with flowers. The point corresponding to that which in Alum Bay ends in the Needle Rocks, is at Whitecliff Bay an abrupt precipice of chalk, with a submarine reef jutting from its foot. This precipice closes the bay r and is the pillar which marks the eastern approach between sea and crag to the foot of the Culver Cliff. Though not so lofty as those at Freshwater, it is equally beautiful, whether seen from above, where a narrow path goes down to a cave y called the Hermit's Hole, or from its foot where the retreating tide leaves space enough to stand below, and look up to the summit. The different exposure of the chalk alters its character at each succeeding 74 THE ISLE OF WIGHT bastion. In some it is so smooth as not to give a hold even to the creep- ing samphire ; in others the juts and ledges are covered by plants and lichens, and haunted by nesting gulls and cormorants. Every year the raven and the peregrine falcon make their eyrie in the Culver Cliff. The birds may be seen on any day throughout the year, never leaving the cliff face for any length of time, and often rearing their young in spite of the cragsmen. The antiquity of this peregrine eyrie can be proved by documents. The Manor House, Yaverland. By John Full-wood. In June 1564, Queen Elizabeth issued a warrant to Sir Richard Worsley, Captain of the Isle of Wight, to search for hawks stolen from the Queen's land in the island, and for committing to ward and examining the "malefactors," who had been faulty of this "stealth and pre- sumtuous attempt." The warrant, which was issued at Richmond and signed by Lords North, Dudley, Pembroke, Howard, and Sir W. THE ISLE OF WIGHT 75 Cecil a curious instance of the keenness with which the Tudor sovereigns guarded their rights does not specify whether the nests robbed were at Culver or Freshwater ; but tradition says the former. The Culver eyrie supplied falcons to the island gentry in the days of James I., for Mr. George Oglander, "had a lanorett that was bred in ye 'White ClifF on Bimbridge, which was ye best hawk with ye worst lookinge to, that wase in England ; for they nevor took care of her, but gave her meat in ye foote, scarce evor tyed her, but lett her scratch for bones with ye dogges ; and when they came afield they cast her off", and she wold followe ye dogges and kill whatsoever did rise, partriche, phesant, bitteron, hearon, hare or coney." There is no place on the English coast where this rare falcon can be seen so easily as on the White ClifF at Bembridge. The writer has visited it some twenty times, and never missed seeing one or a pair of these representatives of what is perhaps the oldest family remaining in the island. The beautiful Jacobean manor house of Yaverland stands on the site of what was the ancient home of the Lords, not only of the Manor of Yaverland, but of the Isle of Bembridge, so far as its protection and defence demanded a captain. It was granted to Sir William Russell, an ancestor of the Duke of Bedford, by Edward I. There the people of the island used to send the first news of the coming of the French, and the Lords of Yaverland would summon their men and lead the array of the island. When the French landed at Bembridge in 1340 Sir Theobald Russell, of Yaverland, met them and drove them back to their ships, but was himself killed in the fight. There is a persistent tradition that the little church which stands by the manor house was built, not on the spot, but at Woolverton a short distance ofF, on the shore of the ancient Brading Haven. The local story is that the town of Woolverton was burnt by the French and every person killed but one, before the Knight of Yaverland could come to help them. The site of the old town is well authenticated, and is now covered by a thick wood called the " Centurion's Copse " (St. Urian's Copse according to antiquaries). The stones of the Norman chapel at Woolverton were taken to Yaverland when Sir William Russell built the church at Yaverland for the con- venience of his household. The road, which anciently ran by Woolver- ton, is now carried higher up the hill-side above, a change made, according 76 THE ISLE OF WIGHT to the same tradition, because the ghosts of the dead people of Wool- verton haunted the ruins where they made their last stand against the French. The traces of this ancient town which was strangled out of existence in a night, standing on the shores of a harbour which is now dry land, and called by a name dating from an earlier period than the foundation of the town itself, are a typical example of the history of the island and the sufferings of its inhabitants in its old and evil days. Map of the Isle of Wight. INDEX A Carne, Colonel, 58 "Centurion's Copse," 75 Afton Down, 1 3 Chafe Bay, 58 Alum Bay, 12, 13, 14, 15, 73 Charles I., n, 24, 27, 28, 29, 52, 53, Appledurcomb, 51, 53, 59 Ashey, 4 Charles II., 8, II Atherfield Rocks, 47 Cherbourg, 8 Avmgton, 31 Colpoys, Admiral, 71 Cowes, 27, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38, 68 Beacon Hill, 13 Cromwell, 24, 28, 30 Beauchamp, Henry, 5 Culver Cliffs, 48, 73, 74, 75 Beaulieu Abbey, 6, 8, 38 , Bembridge, 12, 48, 63, 65, 67, 71, 72, 73, _. Dunnose Point, 48 Blackgang Chine, 40, 44, 47 Durham, Bishop of, 6 Boniface Down, 40, 51 Dyllington, Sir Robert, 27, 61 Brading, 12, 52, 62, 63, 65, 66, 67, 71, 75 Bridport, Lord, 71 Edvvard L > 5. 6 > 7 Brixton, 48 Edward IIT ' 3 6 Brook, 48 Edward 1V " 2 3> 3* Elizabeth, Queen, 7, 8, 21, 24, 74 C F Carey, Sir George, 55, 57 Carisbrook Castle, 6, 21, 24, 28, 29, 30, Firebrace, Mr., 28 31, 32, 58, 68 FitzOsborne, William, 6, 22 INDEX Fortibus, Isabella de, 23 Francheville, 30 Freshwater, 7, 12, 13, 41, 75 Gatcombe, 28, 60 Genoballa, 21, 24 Godshill, 60 57, 73, H Hammond, Colonel, 24, 27, 28, 29, 30 Haynoe, De, 32 Henry I., 6, 24, 35, 52 Henry V., 5 Henry VIII., 6, 7, 23, 69 Holmes, Lord, 1 1 Howe, Lord, 71 James I., 8, 52, 75 Knighton, 6 J K "Landslip, The," 48 Luccombe Chine, 47 M "Main Bench Cliff," 15, 1 6 Marvel, Andrew, 24 Matilda, Empress, 23 Medina, river, 30, 33, 34, 38 Mottstone, 6 N Needles, The, 7, 13, 14, 15, 47, 73 Newland, John, 28 Newport, 24, 27, 28, 30, 32, 33, 34, 47 Newtown, 30, 31, 32 Niton, 42, 44 Nunwell, 24, 52, 53, 58, 67 O Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, 23 Oglander, Sir John, 7, 24, 27, 30, 32, 5163, 67, 71 Oglander, Sir William, 53, 61 Osborne, Mr., 28, 30 Osborne Castle, 37, 38 Palmer's Hill, 38 Parkhurst Forest, 30, 32, 33 Pepper Rock, 16 8 Quarr Abbey, 35, 36, 37, 3 8 R. Redvers, Baldwin de, 23, 35 Redvers, Richard de, 6 Richard II., 6, 3 I Rolfe, Major, 30 Russell, Sir Theobald, 75 Russell, Sir William, 75 Ryde, 36 Myddleton, Sir Hugh, 62, 63, 65, 71 Rye, La, see Ryde INDEX 79 Saint Catherine's Down, 44 Saint Catherine's Point, 40, 42, 44, 48 Saint Helen's, 32, 62, 67 71 Saint Lawrence, 42 Sandown, 48, 57 Scratchell's Bay, 13, 15, 48 Solent, The, 7, 12, 13, 34, 38, 39, 71 " Spithead, mutiny at," 70, 71 Steephill Castle, 42 Sun Corner, 1 6 Tennyson, 13 Titchfield, 27 Torrington, Lord, 69 Totland Bay, 13 Tyrell, Sir Hugh, 32 U UnderclifF, The, 40 42, 48, 5 I Vauban, 24 Ventnor, 40, 41, 47, 48 Violet-le-Duc, 21 W Whippingham, 34 Whitecliff, 12, 73, 75 Whitgar, 22 William the Conqueror, 6, 22, 23 William III., 69 Woodville, Anthony, 23 Woolverton, 75, 76 Worsley, Edward, 28, 30 Worsley, Sir Richard, 6, 53, 59, 60, 74 Worsley family, 5 1 Yar, river, n, 12, 63, 72 Yarmouth, 7, 8, n, 13 Yaverland, 6, 75 UNIVEBSITY OF CALIFOBNIA LIBBABY, BEBKELEY Books not returned on time are subject to a fine of M C * P VOlume , after ? e third d^ overdue, increasing to $1.00 per volume after the sixth day. 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