The Isle of Wight
In 686, The Isle of Wight became the last part of England to convert to Christianity.
It lies just south of Hampshire separated from the mainland by the sweep of the Solent
which is so popular for sailing due to its sheltered water.
It used to be part of Hampshire but became an independent administrative county in 1890.
It is believed that The Needles were once connected to the Old Harry Rocks near Swanage.
They are a row of three distinctive stacks of chalk that rise out of the sea off the
western extremity of the Isle of Wight close to Alum Bay with a lighthouse, designed
by James Walker, at the western end.
They take their name from the former fourth needle-shaped pillar called Lot's Wife
that used to stand in its midst until it is said to have collapsed in a storm in 1764.
However, a drawing of The Needles by Dutch landscape artist Lambert Doomer
in 1646 depicts a rock formation with much stouter shape than that shown in
Isaac Taylor's 1759 'one inch' map of Hampshire and so we are unsure of whether there ever was
a rock that was actually needle shaped!
In the Spring and Summer there are open-top bus trips
along the cliff edge and the whole area is a popular destination for tourists.
Just off the end of the Needles formation is the Shingles, a shifting shoal of pebbles
just beneath the waves around three miles long. Here many ships have
been wrecked and it is an area that is best avoided when sailing in the Solent.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson (1809 – 1892) was Poet Laureate (after William Wordsworth's death in 1850)
and Queen Victoria was an ardent admirer of his work making him Baron Tennyson, of Aldworth in the
County of Sussex and of Freshwater in the Isle of Wight in 1884.
His poetry often imitated the style of other poets such as Byron, whom he greatly admired and one
of his greatest poems is Idylls of the King (1885), a series of narrative poems
based on King Arthur and Arthurian tales.
Tennyson spent a considerable time staying in Freshwater on the Isle of Wight
and he asked that his poem 'Crossing the Bar' (1889)
be placed as the last in all of his published anthologies.
He wrote the poem after a serious illness while at sea, crossing the Solent from Aldworth to
Farringford on the Isle of Wight. Tennyson explained part of the poem thus:
"The Pilot has been on board all the while, but in the dark I have not seen him… that Divine
and Unseen Who is always guiding us."
SUNSET and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.
Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness or farewell,
When I embark;
For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.
Towards the end of his life Tennyson revealed that his "religious beliefs also defied convention,
leaning towards agnosticism and pandeism". Famously, he wrote in In Memoriam: "There lives
more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds."
Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria
made Osborne House in East Cowes on the Isle of Wight her summer home for many years and, as a
result, it became a major holiday resort for fashionable Victorians including Alfred Lord Tennyson,
Julia Margaret Cameron, Charles Dickens and members of European
royalty.
She her husband Prince Albert bought Osborne House on the Isle of Wight in 1845
as a home away from the stresses of court life.
Its views of the Solent reminded
Albert of the Bay of Naples in Italy but they pulled down the original house and built a new
Osborne House in the style of the Italian Renaissance and designed by Prince Albert.
In the grounds is the 'Swiss Cottage' which was brought piece by piece from
Switzerland as a gift to Queen Victoria's children on her
birthday in 1854.
In December 1861, Prince Albert died at Windsor Castle and Osborne House
continued as one of Queen Victoria's favourite homes. As a widow, Victoria went into impenetrable
mourning. She retreated to Windsor and Osborne with her memories.
The private royal apartments were effectively sealed off in a time capsule with
everything preserved as if Albert were still alive.
The domestic routine also continued as though Albert were still alive, even to the extent of his
shaving things and clothes being laid out for him each day.
She died at Osborne on 22 January 1901
During World War II Adolf Hitler, believing that Osborne House could become
one of his post-war retreats, gave orders that the Osborne Estate should not be bombed.
Cowes
Leland's nineteenth century verses described the towns of Cowes as "The two great Cowes that in
loud thunder roar, this on the eastern, that the western shore".
The two towns are linked by the Cowes Floating Bridge, a chain ferry and
Cowes is renowned for sailing with some of the world's most elite yacht clubs.
The town gives its name to the world's oldest
regular regatta, Cowes Week, which occurs annually in the first week of August. Later on in the
summer, powerboat races are held.
The Isle of Wight Festival
The Isle of Wight Festival is a music festival which takes place annually on the Isle of Wight.
The 1970 event, the third Isle of Wight Festival, was by far the largest with a crowd of over
600,000 people
and was said at the time to be one of the largest human
gatherings in the world, surpassing the attendance at Woodstock.
Dr Robin Farquharson is said to have told everyone to pull down the fences and make it a free
festival - he is a man who ditched a successful university career and simply dropped out, living on
the streets of London.
Included in the line-up of over
fifty performers were The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, The Doors, Ten Years After,
Emerson Lake and Palmer, Joni Mitchell, The Moody Blues, Melanie, Donovan, Free,
Chicago, Richie Havens, John Sebastian, Leonard Cohen, Jethro Tull, Taste and Tiny Tim.
The unexpectedly high attendance levels meant inadequate
amenities and crowds that became out of control at times which led in 1971 to
the 'Isle of Wight Act' being passed to prevent gatherings of more than 5,000 people on
the island without a special licence.
The 1970 festival was also
filmed by a professional film crew but the footage wasn't released until
2003.
Jimi Hendrix sang God Save the Queen, Sgt.Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Spanish Castle Magic,
All Along the Watchtower, Machine Gun, Lover Man, Freedom, Red House, Dolly Dagger, Foxey Lady,
Message to Love, Ezy Ryder, Purple Haze, Voodoo Child (Slight Return) and In from the Storm.
He died less than 3 weeks later.
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