Carisbrooke Castle

For the heritage outing for our recent holiday in the Isle of Wight, we opted for Carisbrooke Castle, getting there via the scenic route, the one that takes one past the Hare & Hounds at Downend, a place we have eaten at at least one, getting, as I recall, huge portions of not very nice ham. Possibly fresh out of a tin. Moved on a bit since the snap above was taken.

As it turned out, a hot day. One was glad of a bit of shade from time to time.

We spent quality time in the privy garden, otherwiseth  'Princess Beatrice Garden, designed by a TV gardener, this pretty Edwardian-style garden is based on the original garden retreat of Queen Victoria's daughter'.  The first thing to strike us on arrival was the thistle above, covered in bees and such like.

Then we came across a statue of the war horse 'Warrior' of reference 3,a real war horse, not to be confused with the war horse of the play. Not very big at all and not offensive in the way of a lot of modern outdoor sculpture, but I would have preferred it not to be there. Not a variety of sculpture that I care for, certainly not in ornamental gardens.

The chap on the horse, illustrated in snap of the painting by one Alfred Munnings above, is J. E. B. Seely, 1st Baron Mottistone, who as an acting Brigadier General was given command of the Canadian Cavalry Brigade during a good part of the first world war, and is sometimes remembered for having, in 1918, led one of the last old-style cavalry charges against the Germans. His family were really from up north, but had a lot of land in the Isle of Wight, where Mottistone is to be found in the south, a little to the west of Brighstone.

We visited the chapel, St. Nicholas-in-Castro, with this particular incarnation  completed after the first world war and rededicated as the County War Memorial in 1929. It previously been dedicated to the memory of Charles I. With his retaining centre stage striking me as rather odd: a king executed for treason (even odder) gracing a memorial to those who died fighting for their country in the two world wars.

While Princess Beatrice's husband died of cholera while fighting the Ashanti in West Africa (dark brown, low centre), who took a dim view of our stopping them from grabbing a chunk of the Gold Coast, at that time the property of another, weaker tribe. They needed an outlet to the sea.  And I imagine that, like the Romans before us in Asia Minor, we were only too happy to intervene in affairs of this sort, confident that we would end up on top.

Onto the museum where, inter alia, there was a selection of relics, some of them taking the form of a lock of someone's hair built into a finger ring, or perhaps, as above, a small paper weight.

There was also a display about Little Jane, who died devoutly at Brading, where her cottage is still to be seen, a little run down as I recall. The sort of person, had she lived fifty years earlier, who might have been a worthy subject for Clarissa's charitable and pious activities.

Back into the Privy Garden where benches under a low, spreading tree made a very suitable place for a picnic. Where we were joined by a Ryde lady who had, we learned, had spent years messing around in boats in and around the Greek islands. Afterwards, I wondered how on earth such people occupied all their time when they weren't drinking or conducting affairs with their friends' partners. Perhaps it is a life which suits people who are both sociable and lazy? As opposed to the people who go in for round-the-world solo stunts. From where I associate to the lady who admitted to why-am-I-doing-this moments while she rode out enormous storm waves somewhere in the southern ocean. The sort of thing to be glimpsed among the razzmatazz of reference 4.

Thought about scoring this organ, a companion piece to piano 16 at Osborne, the palace up the road, noticed at reference 5. But being an organ it was too much of a stretch.

We wondered whether the spreading tree was a walnut. Inspection by Bing this morning suggests that it may well have been. But I would have preferred to have had a shot of the leaves from above to be sure.

The walk around the battlements, some of which are visible in the snap above, was one way and looked as if once you had started you had to keep going. Nervous about vertigo I decided against and we settled for a walk around the outside of the walls of this serious castle, with its serious gun emplacements. Lots of grass hoppers and lots of pyramid orchids. BH spotted a rabbit.

We also had what seemed to be a mutant conker tree. Spikes not right for a regular conker, but Bing not helpful so far, Wikipedia does not admit to varieties and further investigation is deferred.

On the way home we took in the famous Ashey Down Sea Mark. Snaps to follow.

Reference 1: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/carisbrooke-castle/.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Beatrice_of_the_United_Kingdom.

Reference 3: https://onthewight.com/war-horse-warrior-remembered-statue-carisbrooke-castle/.

Reference 4a: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24FWd--0l9g.

Reference 4b: https://www.vendeeglobe.org/en.

Reference 5: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/07/piano-16.html.