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Almost Fairyland
A couple of times I've mentioned here a classic and very scarce Isle of Wight book, the privately-circulated 1914 Almost Fairyland: personal notes concerning the Isle of Wight, written by John Morgan...
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Spindler's list
Sorry, more DWM - but I just found out more about the career of William Spindler, the German industrialist who figures large in the Isle of Wight Undercliff's 19th century social circuit. Ventnor was...
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DWWW: part 2
Further to DWWW: part 1, a showcase of nine more largely forgotten DWWWs (Dead White Women Writers) - late-Victorian writers whose portraits appeared in The Picture Magazine, Vol 3, 1894.Click any...
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Ouida - misattributed photo?
Further to the previous post about late-Victorian female authors, I've run into a slight puzzle concerning Ouida (Maria Louise Ramé) and image attribution.There aren't many photographs of her, but a...
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Lanoe Falconer photo found
This is a really nice photo of the writer Lanoe Falconer (Mary Elizabeth Hawker), who I mentioned inDWWW1: part 1.I can't resist a puzzle. After finding the small woodcut image (right) of Lanoe...
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Bayan time (21)
I haven't mentioned the progress on the bayan for a while. It's not through lack of interest, but because it's quietly become a fixture of my life.Today I played at an outdoor charity event at Passage...
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Ropes of sand: a Teignmouth penance
One of those historical snippets that will probably never be elucidated. I just found this anecdote about Sir Warwick Hele Tonkin, a Teignmouth worthy who, for some unknown reason, acquired a ghostly...
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Ouida - not!
A temporary pointer back to Ouida - misattributed photo: I just had a very nice e-mail from the photo librarian at New York Public Library agreeing with my view that a widely-copied image from the NYPL...
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The Dread Wrecker Featherstone
Further to Ropes of sand: a Teignmouth penance, Angela Williams of Literary Places kindly sent me another local-ish example of someone condemned to posthumous torment weaving sand ropes on the beach,...
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DWWW: part 3
Further to DWWW: part 1 and DWWW: part 2, the third post in a showcase of largely forgotten DWWWs (Dead White Women Writers) - late-Victorian writers whose portraits appeared in The Picture Magazine,...
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Alma Lee found
A fascinating development arising from the Isle of Wight County Press feature on A Wren-like Note: a correspondent has sent me a clear identification of the original for the wronged coachman's daughter...
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Devon: its Moorlands, Streams & Coasts
An out-take from The Dread Wrecker Featherstone: Lady Rosalind Northcote's 1908 Devon: its Moorlands, Streams & Coasts, an illustrated account of the landscape and history of Devon.It has extremely...
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Weston Plats revisited: part 1
I briefly visited Weston Plats - a pleasant coastal 'undercliff' near Sidmouth - on a walk a year ago (see Dunscombe: Spring is in the air). But I took myself out yesterday for a better look: a...
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Weston Plats revisited: part 2
Further to Weston Plats revisited: part 1, some photos of the remaining section of Wednesday's walk, from Weston Plats to Sidmouth, taking in the odd landscape of 'Dunscombe Humps'.From the Weston...
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A Tour of the Isle of Wight, 1790
There are any number of "me too" 19th century travelogues of the Isle of Wight, but I just ran into two late 18th century ones that give a slightly different perspective: John Hassell's 1790 Tour of...
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A Tour to the Isle Wight, 1796
The second of the two 18th century Isle of Wight travelogues I mentioned recently: Charles Tomkins' 1796 A Tour to the Isle of Wight.As I said, it has much the same format as John Hassell's 1790 Tour...
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The Devil's Bridge, Steephill
Further to the previous post about Charles Tomkins' 1796 A Tour to the Isle of Wight: a handful of topographic accounts mention an interesting landform at Steephill, Isle of Wight, called the Devil's...
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The Chines They Are a-Changin'
Another spinoff from the recent posts on 18th century Isle of Wight travelogues: the clues you can follow about landscape changes over two centuries, particularly in the chines of the 'Back of the...
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Bayan time (22)
A pleasant early afternoon today: I just played at the Topsham Music Festival (ongoing until 10pm) outside the Lighter Inn at Topsham Quay, in aid of the Macmillan cancer charity. It originally was to...
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Harriet Parr in Shanklin
I've just been reading about another now-unsung Victorian female novelist, Harriet Parr (1828-1900), who wrote under the pseudonym Holme Lee. Although Yorkshire-born, she spent the latter half of her...
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