Farringford

The poet Lord Tennyson spent the last forty years of his life living in a place called Farringford, near Freshwater in the Isle of Wight. With Freshwater being a place, I might say, with an excellent swimming beach; steep and stony.

After that, it went through various vicissitudes, at one point being a rather grand restaurant which we actually ate at once or twice. I remember a very pleasant veranda overlooking the lawn on which one could take brandy, cigars and so forth.

It then had a make over, I think as a health spa, which did not work out, after which it was bought by one Rebecca Fitzgerald, lately something for Christies, the auctioneers in London, who has spent the last ten years or so restoring Farringford to what is was in Lord Tennyson's time. With the snap above reminding us of his contemporary Lord Leighton's house in Kensington, with one of our visits to this last being noticed at reference 3.

The puzzle is, where does the money to do all this come from? To build this shrine to Lord Tennyson? The land and buildings must have cost a tidy sum and it looks as if no expense has been spared on their refurbishment. But it is only being opened on a rather limited basis, with no shop and no restaurant, which does not sound as if it going to pull in that much. The Daily Telegraph is rather coy on this point in the otherwise helpful article at reference 1.

Reference 1: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/uk/great-estates-one-womans-passion-project-recreate-lord-tennysons/.

Reference 2: https://farringford.co.uk/.

Reference 3: http://psmv2.blogspot.com/2014/06/st-volodymyr.html.