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Archiver > ISLE-OF-WIGHT > 1999-03 > 0920930715


From: Barry Drinkle <>
Subject: Isle-of-Wight Holiday 1912 #42
Date: Mon, 08 Mar 1999 17:05:15 -0500


About a mile west of Shorwell we pass --
Limerstone,
interesting on account of its connection with the famous
Tichborne dole.
In the reign of Henry I (1100), Isabella, heiress of the Limerstone
manor, was married to Sir Roger Tichborne. When, after
a life of great charity, she lay dying, she prayed her husband
to set aside for the poor as much land as would enable her
to institute a dole of bread to all comers to the gates
of Tichborne on every successive Lady Day. Sir Roger,
according to the tale, took a brand from the hearth and
promised her as much land as she could encircle whilst
the wood was burning. She caused herself to be carried
from her bed to a place still pointed out, and began creeping
on her hands and knees. Before the brand was consumed
she had encircled a plot of twenty-three acres, still known
as the Crawels.
Limerstone remained in the Tichborne family till the middle
of the eighteenth century, when it was sold. The dole, in the
shape of 1,900 small loaves, was distributed regularly until the
end of the eighteenth century, and morsels of the bread were
kept, it is said, as a sovereign remedy against ague.
Brightstone
is a charming village. The name is really Ecbright's Town,
the manor having been conferred on the see of Winchester
by King Egbert, in 826. The Church has a massive square
tower, with an insignificant steeple and, though of early
date, has been robbed of most of its interest by the
"restorer." Three of its rectors subsequently made their
mark as bishops. It is only necessary to mention the names
of Ken, the author of the immortal Morning and Evening
Hymns, Samuel Wilberforce, and Moberley.
A little way beyond the church is the Wilberforce Church
Hall, presented to the village by a local resident in memory
of his son, and, dedicated to the memory of Bishop Wiberforce,
opened by the Bishop of Portsmouth.
Brightstone makes a very fair centre for holiday-makers of
quiet tastes. The coast is only a mile distant by the turning
to the left just beyond the church and any number of charming
rambles are to be had, such as that nortward over the Down
to Calbourne, 2 3/4 miles. Some interesting caves and rocks
can be seen in the locality.
A little beyond the village we can turn left, and a mile's
walk will bring us to Chilton Chine, where the bathing at high
tide is excellent. There is a refreshment hut.
From Brightstone it is 1 3/4 miles by the main road --
Mottistone,
where the large house by the roadside near the church was
the sixteenth-century Manor-House of the Cheke family, one
of whose members (Sir John) was tutor to Edward VI, and
the first Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge. He is
alluded to in Milton's sonnets:
"Thy age, like ours, O soul of Sir John Cheke,
Hated not learning worse than toad or asp,
When thou taughtest Cambridge and King Edward Greek."

Some 200 years ago a great fall of earth from the hill behind
covered the whole of the back of the house with about 1,500
tons of sand and led to its abandonment as a manor-house;
but this accident had the happy result of preserving the
building from Georgian and Victorian alterations to which it
would undoubtedly have been subjected otherwise. A few
years ago, Major-General the Rt. Hon J. B. Seely, Lord-
Lieutenant of Hampshire, had the 1,500 tons of sand removed
and the house restored, and it now stands as a very beautiful
and pure example of a Tudor Manor-house.
To antiquaries the village is of interest on account of
the proximity of the famous Long Stone, "a huge, rough,
quadrangular pillar of iron sandstone from the lower green
sandstone formation, with a recumbent stone of similar
dimensions four feet distant. It is, perhaps, the earliest
monument of man's construction in the Isle of Wight."
Take the green gate on the right beyond the Manor-House
and follow the path through the woods to the foot of the
Down, whence it is an easy climb to the stones.
About 3/4 mile west of Mottisstone is Brook House, where
are some trees planted by Garibaldi. The left-hand road
leads to the sea-coast village of --
Brook,
one of the most important lifeboat stations in the Island.
Close to Brook Point, but largely covered with seaweed,
zoophytes, etc. is the Pine Raft, a submerged forest
composed of the mineralized trunks of conifers which, according
to Mantell, were "transported from a distance by the river
which flowed through the country whence the Wealden deposits
were derived, and became submerged in the sand and mud of
the delta, burying with it the bones of reptiles, mussel-shells,
and other extraneous bodies it had gathered in its course."
For some miles we have had glimpses of the white cliffs
of Freshwater Bay, and from the summit of Brook Down
the outlook is magnificent. Heather-clad hills still partly
hide the southern sea, but to the right the eye ranges over
nearly level ground to Yarmouth and the Solent. After
skirting Afton Down we bear leftward to Freshwater Bay.
TBC

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