Isle of Wight
From Bath to the Isle of Wight
Escaping from the Gordon Riots in Bath because Mr. Thrale had voted in favour of the Bill for the Relief of Roman Catholics in 1788 and so was in danger of attack from anti-Catholic rioters. In letters to her father, Fanny describes their hasty departure and their progress to Brighton stopping at Salisbury, Southampton, Portsmouth, Isle of Wight before arriving at Mr Thrale’s house in Brighton (called Brighthelmstone)
“Here we are, dearest sir, and here we mean to pass this night. We did not leave Bath till eight o’clock yesterday evening, at which time it was filled with dragoons, militia, and armed constables, not armed with muskets, but bludgeons: these latter were all Chair men, who were sworn by the mayor in the morning for petty constables. A popish private chapel, and the houses of all the catholics, were guarded between seven and eight, and the inhabitants ordered to keep house.
We set out in the coach-and-four, with two men on horseback, and got to Warminster, a small town in Somersetshire, a little before twelve. (She adds in a letter to her sister “All was quiet and the people of the Inn were asleep. We could not get our Supper and Beds ready till near 2 in the Morning”). This morning two more servants came after us from Bath, and brought us word that the precautions taken by the magistrates last night had good success, for no attempt of any sort had been renewed towards a riot…”
-Salisbury, June 11, 1780
Wilton
”We stopped on our way at Wilton, and spent half the day at that beautiful place.The house is very large & very ancient: the Collection of Statues, Busts, Marbles & Pictures I suppose the first in the kingdom!…There is one large Room completely furnished with undoubted Vandykes –there are Raphaels – Salvator Rosas, Guercinos, Carlo Marratti’s – such Rubens – Oh God! such things!-!-!- I wanted to have spent whole Days at single Pictures…I had now rather again see Wilton than visit any new place…there are tables, too, without end or number of such materials as other Collectors are proud to have Gems, such as Lapis Lazuli, Verd Antique, Lava, Porphyry…O that we could go and spend a Week there!”
Wilton House is the seat of the Herbert family, Earls of Pembroke; Henry, 9th Earl at this time, 1780. Henry had married Lady Elizabeth Spencer Churchill, daughter of the 3rd Duke of Marlborough. Although he ran off with a young woman, lived and had a child with her, he had returned to his wife in 1763. King George III and Queen Charlotte visited them at Wilton (his indiscretions having been forgiven) during a review of troops for the American War in 1778, just 2 years before Fanny and her party.
Wilton House
Ashcombe House
Salisbury Cathedral
Salisbury
“Just before we arrived there, Lord Arundel had sent to the officers in the place, to entreat a party of guards immediately, for the safety of his House, as he had intelligence that a mob was on the road from London to attack it:- he is a catholic. His request was immediately complied with. We intended to have gone to a private town, but find all quiet here, and therefore prefer it as much more commodious. There is no Romish chapel in the town; – Mass has always been performed for the Catholics of the place at a Mrs Arundel’s in the Close, a Relation of his Lordship’s: -whose House is 15 miles off.”
“Lord Arundel” was Henry, 8th Baron Arundell of Wardour Castle who had built a country house, New Wardour Castle a few hundred metres west of Old Wardour Castle which he turned into a picturesque park of ruins, lake and woodland. His house, as Fanny said, was about 15 miles due west of Salisbury.
“Mrs Arundel” would have been Ann, daughter of John Wyndham, married to James Everard Arundell, son of 6th Lord Arundell. From her father she inherited the house in the Close (Arundells, later the home of Sir Edward Heath) and also Ashcombe House about 23 miles south west of Salisbury which was later the home of Cecil Beaton and even later, of Madonna and Guy Ritchie.
After Wilton, Fanny’s enthusiasm was subdued. She describes Salisbury as a pretty town with small canals of clear water running through almost every street. However, Salisbury cathedral “paid our trouble…it is a beautiful structure – light, elegant & pleasing; I believe it is reckoned the most beautiful Gothic Building in the kingdom.”
Southampton
“This town affords nothing worth seeing but an arm of the sea, which runs up to it, & renders its prospects extremely pretty. We went to the Rooms at Night, and had them to ourselves. We also looked at the Baths, & strolled through the town, which is well enough.”
Portsmouth
Portsmouth reminded Fanny of her sailor brother, James (Jem). She refers to the Col. at the Camp at Portsmouth who read them his orders from Lord Amherst, Commander-in-Chief of the Army, for Martial Law upon any tumult.
Painting of Carisbrooke Castle 1790 by Julius Caesar Ibbetson
Isle of Wight
June 14 1780 Fanny writes further,
“We go to Spithead tomorrow and thence to the Isle of Wight.”
I was curious as to how they got from Spithead or the mainland to the Isle of Wight. Did they go in the carriage, was it put onto a boat? In “Four Letters to a Friend” by John Sturch 1780, I found the answer:
Before we quit this channel (the Solent) however, it may be proper to observe, that a number of passage vessels are constantly employed upon it to keep up the mutual intercourses which either pleasure or business may call for. There are among these, three in government pay called packet boats, which carry the mails from the island every day except Friday, and return with them every day except Tuesday. They pass and repass between Southampton and Cowes taking passengers, either with or without horses or carriages, and one or the other of them is always in readiness to be hired on any emergency.
Besides these, there are divers other vessels which make it their business to go and return daily between Yarmouth, and Lymington, Ride, Cowes and Portsmouth. By these and other means both stated and accidental, we have little or no reason to complain of our detached and insular situation.
Fanny’s description of the Isle of Wight was fairly brief but enthusiastic.
“We saw nothing but Ride, where we landed, Newport where we dined and Carisbrooke Castle where we stared about us….the country I thought the most beautiful that could be seen…the journey from Ride to Newport as delightfully diversified by wood, plain and water as even a painter’s Imagination could have represented it”.
However, they were once again in touch with the officer in charge of the resident regiment, so while “staring about” at Carisbrooke Castle Major Williams told them. that he had the same commands (for Martial Law) as they had heard about in Portsmouth. Prior to the Gordon riots in London which had sparked the Martial Law commands, the Isle of Wight was a French target in times of war and with the French involvement in the American War of Independence there was concern about French attacks. But the Castle was mainly used as a stores depot or a grace-and-favour residence for the governor.
My Trip to the Isle of Wight
We took the shortest crossing from the mainland on the ferry from Lymington to Yarmouth on the north-west coast of the Isle…
Very windy day but clear. Yarmouth is a historic town on the mouth of the Yar river with a Grade 2 listed pier and fine old buildings. As we were crossing the island at 5 pm, it was a slow trip with rather heavy traffic. We had chosen to stay in Fishbourne because it is close to Ryde which was where Fanny’s party arrived on the island. These days the FastCat catamaran and the hovercraft which go between Portsmouth and Ryde only take foot passengers. We saw a beautiful sunset from our hotel garden.
Painting of Eugène Manet (brother of painter Edouard) by his wife Berthe Morisot on their honeymoon at Cowes on Isle of Wight 1875.
Entrance to Quarr Abbey
View of Quarr Abbey
In the morning we went to Ryde to follow the route to Newport. Ryde was rather disappointing, and the road to Newport was very busy.
However, there was plenty of woodland and along the way we were attracted by a sign to Quarr Abbey so we ventured along the drive. It turned out to be a Benedictine monastery with a large red brick Abbey built in the early 1900s set in 200 beautiful acres of pasture, woodlands, coastline and formal gardens. Originally founded in 1132 for Cistercian monks, it was closed under Henry VIII.
At the time Fanny and her party were driving from Ryde to Newport the property belonged to Sir Richard Worsley who had built a new house on the site of a Tudor manor house. But Fanny makes no mention of this place in her letters.
Newport is quite a sizeable town and the centre was busy with shoppers. We didn’t “dine” as Fanny had, but we “coffeed” in an attractive cafe recommended to us as having the best coffee in town, by someone we stopped on the street. It was Primrose cafe and as it was a sunny morning we were able to sit in the garden.
Newport Guildhall, Primrose Café, Newport High Street
Carisbrooke Castle is set in a wonderful position on a hilltop surrounded by ramparts and bastions of the vast Elizabethan artillery fortress. We joined many other tourists who despite Covid were enjoying the sunshine and fresh air, the views and the tour of the ancient, historic buildings.
A Norman motte-and-bailey castle built about 1100. It has been adapted over the centuries to meet new defensive needs, as southern England faced the threat of French and then Spanish invasion.
It was also used to imprison King Charles I in 1647-8 before his execution. A lovely garden behind the chapel is still beautifully maintained.
Our ferry from Fishbourne to Portsmouth was delayed for many hours because of mechanical failure of one of the large ferries, so we had more time to look around Fishbourne.
