FOOTPRINTS OF THE INVADERS
Among the antiquities of the island the Roman villa at Brading must
certainly rank first. This was discovered by the late Mr. Hilton Price,
F.S.A. The villa consisted of a central block with a wing on each side.
The central part was doubtless occupied by the owner, and the two wings
by his slaves and soldiers. There are traces of two distinct periods of
occupation, and indications that the villa was ultimately destroyed by
fire. In the course of the excavations tiles, broken pottery, coins,
bronze implements and other things were unearthed in quantities.
The writer on the Isle of Wight in the Victoria County Histories says:
"Not quite the whole of the villa probably has been explored; the baths,
for instance, are not yet found. But we have ample details, and can
form a general judgment. The villa at Brading was neither of the best
period nor of special size and splendour, but neither was it a
farmhouse. It must have been the residence of men of the upper classes,
owners (we may suppose) of broad acres all around. They may not have
possessed great wealth or many articles of luxury; they may have carried
such things away with them when they abandoned the house. Some time in
the dim period of which we know so little, early in the fifth century,
the place was burnt by enemy or accident, and the Romano-British life
which it had sheltered came utterly to an end."
If there are no baths there is at all events an excellent specimen of a
hypocaust, or Roman heating arrangement, to be seen. The chief interest
for visitors, however, lies in the well-preserved specimens of mosaic
flooring which have been said by some authorities to be among the finest
of their kind in England; this view, however, is not held by the writer
quoted above, who says: "The Brading mosaics are elaborate and
ambitious; let us add that their execution does not wholly lack spirit.
But as artistic achievements they are not successful. They must
unquestionably be ranked beneath the best specimens of mosaics found
both in England and abroad."
However this may be to the specialist, the designs are exceedingly
interesting to the ordinary observer, who will gaze with great delight
at the quaint representation of Orpheus playing on the lyre and
surrounded by animals, as well as at the pastoral designs in the other
rooms. A small charge is made for entrance, and the lesser objects are
preserved in cases for more convenient inspection.
Other Roman remains, including coins, have been found at many places in
the island, and the traces of a villa at Carisbrooke. Of remains other
than Roman there are not many, the principal find being that at Arreton,
where, at the opening of some barrows on the downs, knife-blades,
spearheads, and coarse pottery of the Anglo-Saxon times were unearthed
beside the skeletons with which they had been buried. At Rowborough
there are some very curious remains of "pit-dwellings." In the first of
the valleys where these are to be found there are ten pits, each twenty
to thirty feet wide and more or less circular. Some are now filled up
with a growth of brushwood. Above the last pit a long excavation runs
up the valley for some twenty or thirty yards, and this may be an old
road. A good deal higher up there is a large basin-like excavation. In
the second valley there are seven pits, and in the third about eighteen.
It is possible that these may not be dwellings, but remains of very
early attempts at chalk-getting.
The churches of the island, looked at as antiquities, are disappointing,
for though there is a good deal of Norman work in some of them they have
often been very fully "restored." Brading holds itself to be the oldest
church in the island, and there is in it much Norman work, and even
fragments of something older. There are also some interesting tombs,
including that to Sir John Cherowin, who died in 1441.
The best known of all the churches is perhaps that at Bonchurch, always
attractive to visitors. The surroundings are perhaps responsible for
this as much as the little old building, now disused, and said to be in
danger of slipping into the sea, even though this is the "sole wholly
Norman structure on the island." It was built in 1070, restored very
fully in the seventeenth century, and finally disused in 1850. The
beauties of the neighbourhood are well described by Mr. Hope Moncrieff:
"The mildness of the climate is attested by huge arbutus growths,
recalling those of Killarney, by fuchsias like trees, with trunks as
thick as a strong man's wrist, and by scarlet geraniums of such
exuberance that a single plant will cover several square yards of wall
in front of a house.... The road is much shut in between walls of
private grounds, within which are enclosed some of the finest spots,
such as the 'Pulpit Rock,' a projecting mass of sandstone marked by a
cross, and another known as the 'Flagstaff Rock.'"
The new church, with "its sadly beautiful graveyard," is on the hill
above. The church at Shalfleet should certainly not be omitted, for its
Norman tower with the carved tympanum ranks high among its kind. The
rude sculpture represents a figure resting his hands on two animals, and
the subject has been interpreted as David contending with the lion and
the bear.
At Whitwell Church, oddly enough, the present chancel was originally a
chapel dedicated to St. Rhadegund, and the south chapel was the chancel.
A quaint memory is enshrined in the name of Godshill, one of the
prettiest of the island villages, of which the story is told, as it has
often been told of other places, that at the building of the church the
stones laid in place by masons at the foot of the hill on the selected
site were miraculously transported to its summit night by night, as a
sign that the church was to stand there, and there it was accordingly
built. It is in a very striking situation, hardly sufficiently indicated
by the picture, and it contains a painting of "Daniel in the Lions'
Den," attributed to Rubens.
The inhabitants of the charming little cottages chiefly live in
summer-time on the profits of making tea for visitors, and are strenuous
rivals.
From Godshill came forth the sole native of the island whose name has
come down to posterity in connection with the Reformation, and his,
alas! with infamy. This was Dr. Cole, a turncoat of the worst kind. He
was born at Godshill about 1520, and was an ardent Protestant under
Edward VI., holding the position of Warden of New College, Oxford; he
used the power of his position in the narrowest spirit. With the
accession of Mary his views completely altered, and he reaped the reward
in being made Provost of Eton and Dean of St. Paul's. He was also
selected to preach the funeral sermon at the burning of Cranmer, a
congenial task indeed for one who had been Cranmer's friend! However,
there is no convert so enthusiastic as he who has his zeal to prove, and
he gave the oration at St. Mary's, Oxford, "when on a stage set up over
against the pulpit of a mean height from the ground the archbishop was
placed in a bare and ragged gown and ill-favouredly clothed with an old
square cap, exposed to the contempt of all men."
Dr. Cole was also sent over to Ireland to suppress the new converts to
the reformed faith there. He stayed the night at Chester on the way, and
could not forbear boasting about his commission. The landlady overheard,
and having a brother a Protestant in Dublin, she managed to steal the
commission from the little case in which the doctor carried it, and to
substitute for it a pack of cards. Dr. Cole did not discover his loss
until he arrived in Dublin, and with great seriousness presented the
commission, as he supposed, to the Privy Council. On the opening of the
box there fell thereout the pack of cards, to the no small confusion of
the envoy!
He returned to England to secure its renewal, but while on the return
journey he was awaiting a favourable wind to make the passage across
the Irish Channel once more, he heard of the death of Queen Mary, and
thus the Irish reformers were saved! It is said that Queen Elizabeth, on
learning the story, allowed the landlady, Mrs. Edmunds, a pension of £40
a year for the rest of her life. As for Dr. Cole, he was put in prison,
where he died in misery and ignominy.
[Illustration: GROUND-PLAN OF CARISBROOKE CASTLE.]
INDEX
Abbeys, 23
Albert, Prince, 34
Alum Bay, 49
Appuldurcombe, 23
Arnold, Dr., 32
Battenberg, Prince Henry of, 16, 39
Blackgang Chine, 53
Bonchurch, 57
Brading, 54
Brett, Colonel, 18
Carisbrooke, 13-22
Charles I., 19, 26, 27
Chines, 52
Cole, Dr., 59
Cowes, 41-45
Cowes Week, 41
Cromwell, Thomas, 16, 24
Davenant, Sir W., 22, 42
De Redvers family, 14, 23
Downs, The, 51
Elizabeth, Princess, 21
_Eurydice_, 47
Farringford, 29
Fitz-Osborne, William, 14
French invasion, 27
Freshwater Bay, 51
General description, 6
Geology, 49
Giambelli, 17
Gloucester, Duke of, Henry, 21
Godshill, 58
Golf, 52
Governors of the Island, 16
Health resorts, 8
Henry VIII., 24
Howard of Effingham, 18
Hunsdon, Lord, 17
Industries, 7
Isabella de Fortibus, 15
Keats, 30
Ken, Bishop, 30
Lugley Stream, 26
Medina River, 25, 28
Needles, The, 49
Newport, 25
Newport, Treaty of, 26
Norman churches, 57
Oglander, Sir John, 8
Osborne, 33-39
Parkhurst Forest, 19, 28
Portland, Countess of, 19
Quarr Abbey, 7, 23
Railways, 10
Richmond, Legh, 30
Roads, 9
Roman remains, 14, 54, 56
_Royal George_, 46
Royal Naval College, 40
Royal Yacht Squadron, 41
Sandown, 8, 12
Scenery, 7
Sewell, Elizabeth, 31
Shalfleet, 58
Shanklin, 8, 12
Shanklin Chine, 52
Sheep, 7
Size of the Island, 6
Solent, The, 42, 44
Spanish Armada, 17
Tennyson, Lord, 29, 51
Totland Bay, 12
Undercliff, The, 53
Vane, Sir Harry, 22
Ventnor, 8, 10
Victoria, Queen, 33-39
Whitwell Church, 58
Wilberforce, Bishop, 30
Whippingham Church, 39
Worsley family, 24
Worsley, James, 24, 25
Yachting, 41-45
Yar, River, 51
BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD, ENGLAND