What to See in England
By Gordon Home

Presented by

Public Domain Books

Osborne House

=How to get there.=–Train from London Bridge or Victoria. London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway. =Nearest Station.=–Cowes. =Distance from London.=–87 miles. =Average Time.=–Varies between 4 to 5-1/4 hours.

                     1st        2nd       3rd
=Fares.=–Single  16s.  0d.  10s. 5d.   8s. 10d.
          Return  27s. 10d.  18s. 2d.  16s.  4d.

=Accommodation Obtainable.=–Cowes–"Fountain Hotel,” “The
  Gloster,” “Royal Marine Hotel."
=Alternative Route.=–Train from Waterloo via Southampton. L. and
  S.W. Railway.

Osborne House having been presented to the nation by King Edward, portions of the buildings and grounds are, or will be, available to the public on week days.

This stately marine residence of the late Queen Victoria is situated in the Isle of Wight, an island remarkable for the variety and beauty of its scenery. The Queen purchased the estate in 1845 from Lady Elizabeth Blachford, and the palace was finished in 1851. Since that time many additions have been made. The main gates are about three-quarters of a mile up the hill from the ferry, and the Prince of Wales’s Gate further south, opposite the hotel. Osborne House has a melancholy interest attached to it, for here, on January 22, 1901, Queen Victoria breathed her last. A portion of every year was spent by the Queen at her seaside home, which had many associations of her happy life there with her husband, the late Prince Consort, “Albert the Good.” Surrounded with their children, they forgot the splendours and fatigues of Court, and devoted themselves to training their family in all that was useful and good. The Queen nearly always spoke of Osborne as “her island home.” She and Prince Albert delighted in the fact that it was their own, that they could make their own plans, exercise their own taste in the laying out of the gardens, and in the building–in fact, in everything in this seaside home. The building is in the Palladian style, and was designed by Thomas Cubitt and the late Prince Consort. The grounds, covering 5000 acres, are 8 miles in extent, with a sea front of 1-1/3 miles. The terrace gardens are ornamented with statuary, and the grounds lead down to the water’s edge, where there are sea baths and a private pier. The last journey of Victoria the Good from Osborne to the mausoleum at Frogmore, in the grounds of Windsor Castle, was a spectacle never to be forgotten.

[Illustration: Photochrom Co., Ltd. OSBORNE HOUSE.

Built by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1851.]

Continue...

Preface  •  Ham House and Petersham  •  Walton-On-Thames (scold’s Bridle)  •  Harrow  •  Holwood House, Keston  •  Chigwell, Essex  •  Waltham Abbey and Cross  •  Downe  •  Epsom: Its Races and Its Salts  •  Epping Forest  •  Hampton Court  •  Rye House, Broxbourne  •  Hatfield House, Herts  •  Runnymead, the Signing of Magna Charta  •  The Oldest Brass in England  •  St. Albans  •  Stoke Poges Church, Bucks  •  Windsor  •  Jordans and William Penn  •  Knole House and Sevenoaks  •  Greenstead Church  •  Chalfont St. Giles  •  Westerham  •  Guildford, Surrey  •  Gad’s Hill  •  Ightham Mote, Kent  •  Penshurst  •  St. Michael’s Mount and Marazion  •  Rochester Cathedral  •  Tunbridge Wells  •  The Quintain Post At Offham and Malling Abbey  •  Eversley  •  Farnham, Surrey  •  Hindhead, Surrey  •  Shottermill  •  Penn’s Chapel At Thakeham, Sussex  •  Chawton the Home of Jane Austen  •  Selborne  •  Elstow  •  Lewes, Sussex  •  Bodiam Castle, Sussex  •  Colchester, Essex  •  Layer Marney  •  Battle Abbey  •  Cambridge  •  Arundel Castle  •  Olney, Bucks  •  Wantage and the Country of Alfred the Great  •  Canterbury and Its Cathedral  •  Reculvers  •  Oxford  •  Midhurst  •  Pevensey Castle  •  Savernake Forest  •  Ely Cathedral  •  St. Ives, Huntingdonshire  •  Winchelsea and Rye  •  Blenheim Palace  •  Peterborough Cathedral and Crowland  •  Peterborough  •  Southampton  •  Helmingham Hall  •  Stonehenge, Wiltshire  •  Netley Abbey  •  Salisbury and Its Cathedral  •  Sandwich, Kent  •  New Forest, Hampshire  •  Osborne House  •  Carisbrooke Castle  •  Lutterworth  •  Compton Wynyates  •  Kenilworth Castle  •  Belvoir Castle  •  Bath  •  Boston and the Pilgrim Fathers  •  Warwick  •  Gloucester and Its Cathedral  •  Norfolk Broads  •  Norwich Cathedral  •  Lichfield  •  Sherborne and Its Abbey Church  •  Newark  •  Wells and Its Cathedral  •  Stratford-On-Avon  •  Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk  •  Lulworth Cove, Dorsetshire  •  Corfe Castle  •  Lincoln and Its Cathedral  •  Somerset, the Birthplace of Tennyson  •  Glastonbury Abbey  •  Walsingham, Norfolk  •  Cheddar Caves, Cheddar, Somerset  •  Newstead Abbey  •  The Wessex of Thomas Hardy’s Romances  •  Tintern Abbey  •  Chesterfield, Derbyshire  •  Dukeries  •  Haddon Hall, Derbyshire  •  The Isle of Athelney, and Sedgemoor  •  Raglan Castle  •  Dovedale  •  Wellington and the Wrekin, Shropshire  •  Wroxeter and the Roman City of Uriconium, Salop  •  Buildwas Abbey, Shropshire  •  Ludlow and Its Castle  •  Shrewsbury  •  Buxton and the Peak District  •  Tewkesbury  •  Exeter and Its Cathedral  •  Market Drayton, Salop  •  Chester  •  Exmoor  •  Knutsford  •  Torr Steps On the Barle, Somerset  •  Cleeve Abbey, Somerset  •  Hawarden  •  York Minster  •  Coxwold, Yorkshire  •  Llangollen and Valle Crucis Abbey  •  Knaresborough, Dripping Well  •  Fountains Abbey  •  Ripon Cathedral  •  Dartmoor  •  Haworth  •  Rievaulx Abbey  •  Brixham, Devon  •  Conway Castle  •  The Doone Valley, Exmoor  •  Llandovery, South Wales  •  Dartmouth, Devon  •  Richmond, Yorkshire  •  Tintagel  •  Whitby  •  Carnarvon Castle  •  Plymouth  •  Durham and Its Cathedral  •  Raby Castle, Durham  •  Snowdon  •  Harlech Castle  •  Grasmere and Rydal Mount  •  The Lake District  •  St. Davids Cathedral  •  Furness Abbey, Lancashire  •  Monkwearmouth, Near Jarrow  •  The Isle of Man  •  Brantwood  •  Fowey  •  Hexham and Hadrian’s Wall  •  The Lake District  •  Keswick  •  Alnwick Castle  •  Lanercost Priory, Cumberland  •  Lanercost Priory and Stepping-Stones.]  •  St. Ives, Cornwall  •  Bamborough Castle, Northumberland

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What to see in England;: A guide to places of historic interest, natural beauty or literary association,
By Gordon Home
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