Isle of Wight - Day 5 Tuesday, 10th July - Niton, Freshwater and Tennyson Down

On Tuesday the weather was quite a bit cooler - thank goodness!

D went a walk on a different public footpath around Niton early a.m. so I have included his photos so you can see more views around the village. We do like Niton and the walking round the village is excellent. There was a rather superb house on the market at Niton Undercliff a few weeks before we went and to be honest as we are still considering moving to the island (although I don't think it will be in the short term unfortunately) I would have arranged a viewing it was that lovely with sea views too. Sadly, it disappeared from the website a few days before the holiday - I suspect it was taken off the market as usually if houses are sold subject to contract they remain on the website.

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A well camouflaged grasshopper.

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Niton is quite a hotspot for badgers - although we have only ever seen one there on the outskirts of the village.

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D picked up this plant outside a house where there was a notice saying "spare tomato plants - please take one". It came home with us - has been re-potted and already has 6 baby tomatoes.

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Today we went to Freshwater which is an unspoilt village with a picturesque cove where the beach is a mixture of grey flint and chalk pebbles. The cliffs are chalk laid down 96-65 million years ago and contain caves visible at low tide which were once used by smugglers.

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Herring Gull

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I am not sure if you will be able to read the information in the above photo even if it is enlarged. In the mid 19th century Freshwater became a retreat for artists, writers and photographers - the group of these became known as The Freshwater Circle.

Alfred Lord Tennyson moved here to Farringford House with his wife Emily to bring up their family. He lived here between 1853 and 1892. Once on the island he wrote "The Charge of the Life Brigade", "Crossing the Bar" and "Maud". He also finished his Arthurian epic "Idylls of the King". Tennyson entertained many writers, scientists and artists here and they would discuss subjects such as evolution and religion. They took long walks in the countryside exploring the landscape and even examining newly discovered dinosaur bones.

Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) became part of Tennyson's Circle when he holidayed on the island in 1859. Alice Liddell spent her childhood at Freshwater where she modelled for the pioneering photographer Julia Margaret Cameron (who was also part of the Circle) at Dimbola Lodge. Lewis Carroll used to tell stories to Alice and her sister about a young girl called Alice and these tales were later published as "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland".

We visited Dimbola Lodge which is now a museum last year and its well worth a visit especially if you are interested in photography. Julia Cameron once took a portrait photograph in 1867 of John Herschel (mathematician, astronomer and chemist) and she considered him her first teacher as he had a great interest in photography making many important contributions.

Edward Lear (poet and illustrator) became a frequent visitor to Farringford.

George Frederic Watts (painter) who was known as "England's Michelangelo" moved to a house in Freshwater in 1874 to be close to the Freshwater Circle. He married the actress Ellen Terry (who was 30 years his junior) in 1864 and they spent their honeymoon at Dimbola although the marriage only lasted a year.

Many of the era's greatest writers, thinkers and artists visited either Tennyson or Cameron - these included

Robert Browning - poet and playwright
Sir Edward Byrne-Jones - artist
Thomas Carlyle - philosopher and essay writer
Charles Darwin - naturalist
Jenny Lind - opera singer
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - poet
Sir John Everett Millais - painter and illustrator
Dante Gabriel Rossetti -poet, illustrator and painter
Anthony Trollope - novelist
William Makepeace Thackeray - novelist

It would have been interesting to have witnessed some of the discussions this group had!



I would have loved to have visited Farringford House which is now open to the public on certain days of the week but I knew the family having visited one house and garden i.e. Osborne wouldn't want to visit another one - perhaps next time.

I loved the transfer on this car.

There is a very good walk around a nature reserve called Afton Marshes which starts in the car park. The Marshes are good for birds and water voles - last time we saw water vole burrow entrance holes although sadly no water voles - I think there were too many dog walkers about. This time for a change we decided to walk up onto the Downs to Tennyson's Monument.

I couldn't believe how bleached and brown the Downs looked thanks to the long hot dry spell we are experiencing.

Looking back towards Freshwater.

Getting higher - apologies if these views are a bit repetitive!

Looking towards Yarmouth

Tennyson's monument in the distance

Scabious - the exposed situation meant the chalk down flower species were often stunted.

I would love to know what this species is should anyone know.

I sat on a bench for a while to get my breath back and cool down.

Compton and Timothy enjoying the views and glad that they were getting a lift and not walking!

Chalkhill Blue

Skylark- I think (I hadn't got my binoculars with me and the photo is not brilliant having been heavily cropped!)

Finally, the Tennyson Monument - we did think of walking onto the Needles but the thought of the walk back as it was getting hotter was a bit too much!

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We saw quite a few kestrels on the walk - the coastal grassland all along the Military Road is good for this species. I haven't bothered cropping the photo as the bird is too distant!

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Towards the start of the walk I had caught a fleeting glimpse of a Fritillary butterfly - for a moment I wondered if it might be Glanville (which still manages to elude me) although I thought it was too late in the year. By the monument we saw another one and D managed to get a photo which has been heavily cropped but this one was a Dark Green Fritillary.

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Walking back down which was a lot easier than going up!

A cooling ice cream in Freshwater.

In the evening we went for a very good meal at the White Lion which is only about 100 yards from the cottage.



*D Photos taken by my son with the Canon Sx50hs bridge camera - apologies if you see a dark smudge in the sky in some of the photos this holiday - there seems to be a problem internally with the lens. D has had to photoshop the dark smudge out on the photos he is keeping for himself. Not sure what we can do about it although I will contact Canon.

Rest of photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera



Next post will include a walk on Boniface Down (near the radar station featured in the Ghost Walk), then a trip to the Donkey Sanctuary at Wroxall followed by a cream tea at a delightful tearoom with a fairy garden in Shanklin Old Village.

I am sorry for posting so many posts over a short period of time - I know how difficult it can be to keep up when people do this so please don't worry if you can't read or comment on them all.