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Page 20
We shall often see the prospect-tower of Fernhill peering above the
masses of variegated foliage; and indeed the whole has much the air
of a religious structure, enjoying one of those happy localities
which distinguished such retreats of former days. The opposite
banks of the river, or rather lake, are clothed with the finest
oak-woods in the island, feathering from the very water's edge; and
the whole neighbourhood presents the rich appearance of an
extensive forest covering hill and dale. Should therefore the
visitor reach this spot at the favorable concurrence of high water
on a calm sunny day, he will agree with us that the whole forms a
splendid landscape,--_rock_ being in fact the only feature denied
to make it perfect.
Excellent roads have recently been made (by the proprietor of the
estate,) on the west side of the river, below the bridge: affording
a very pleasant drive; and as they open many delightful sites, will
probably cause a considerable accession of buildings in that
direction.
At the mouth of the creek on the east side is a large hamlet called
FISHHOUSE, including a dockyard, where several frigates have been
built.
WOOTTON COMMON is a mile nearer Newport: and affords an instance within
a few years of a wild tract of gorse and brambles being profitably
converted to tillage and garden. Here too are several scattered
dwellings forming an improving hamlet; and in one of them (called in
courtesy _Landscape Cottage_,) was produced _in all its stages_ the
present little work, as well as its other kindred publications.
About midway between Wootton and Ryde, on the sea side of the road, we
pass the remains of
QUARR ABBEY,
The most considerable ecclesiastical establishment ever founded in the
Isle of Wight, which had, like every other part of Great Britain,
previous to the Reformation, its full share of monastic and other
religious institutions. This was among the first settlements of the
Cistercian Order in England, having been built in the 12th century; was
most amply endowed, and had several illustrious persons buried in the
chapel, to whose memory sumptuous monuments were erected; but after its
dissolution, the property was purchased by a merchant of Southampton,
and the sacred edifice _reduced for the value of the bare materials_.
The merchant's son afterwards sold the estate to the Lord Chief
Justice, Sir Thomas Fleming, with whose descendants it still
remains. Some of the outer walls are still extant, and must have
circumscribed at least 20 acres. A foot-path passes through the
grounds to Ryde, &c.
Of this once-magnificent establishment little now remains; merely
portions of the appendant offices, which were converted into barns,
&c., for farm-purposes. What was spared in the moment of ruthless
spoliation, lay long buried under heaps of rubbish and weeds--till
a few years since, when one of the occupiers, with laudable zeal,
rescued from total annihilation the few remaining fragments, which
are now open to the view of strangers.
* * * * *
The other Religious Structures
Scattered through the island were ... a Priory at St. Helen's; one
at Appuldurcombe; one at St. Cross, near Newport; and another at
Carisbrooke, vestiges of which may still be traced; together with a
great number of oratories, chantries, chapels, and religious
houses, amounting in the whole to 70 or 80, exclusive of the
regular parish-churches;--and yet scarcely any of these interesting
monuments have survived their reckless doom to ruin and neglect;
not even a spiry fragment sufficiently large or romantic to form a
pleasing subject for the pencil, invite the mind to contemplation,
or aid the poet's retrospective muse.
* * * * *
BINSTEAD, to which there is a good foot-path from Quarr through the
woods, is about a mile westward of Ryde. Several genteel residences,
mostly built in a pleasing cottage-style, adorned by groups of trees and
shrubs, are scattered over a wide space of broken ground, where
extensive stone-quarries have been worked for many centuries. It is a
favorite walk with the inhabitants of Ryde, across the fields to the
church (not seen from the road), which has lately been considerably
enlarged and improved. The names of the respective villas will be found
in the List of Seats.
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