Page 198 - WDT Magazine Egypt

Left to right top row: 1. Farringford House, former home
of Alfred, Lord Tennyson 2. Osborne House, Queen Vic-
toria’s favorite retreat 3. The queen’s study at Osborne
House

Also in 1853, the acclaimed poet Alfred, Lord Ten- and began covering them in a shrouded cloud. Soon
nyson moved into Farringford House close to Fresh- The Needles were all but covered in mist.
water Bay and lived there with his wife Emily for 39 We moved on to check out the famous tradition of
years. Tennyson was invited by Queen Victoria to filling a glass shape with layers of different coloured
Osborne House and a correspondence between the sand from Alum Bay. In 1860, gifts made from the
two, who both appreciated and sought the anonym- sands were first presented to Queen Victoria, though
ity and remoteness on the Isle of Wight, ensued. The today visitors are no longer allowed to collect their
gothic house opened again last year to the public own soil but can fill their bottles in souvenir stores
after a complete refurbishment. “If you were stand- instead.
ing on the scaffolding in 2011, you could look down to Some 100 years later, the Isle of Wight, now seen
the basement”, said Matthew Slade who oversaw the as a quiet holiday haven, was the setting for a series
project on behalf of a private owner. of infamous rock festivals in the late 1960s. At one
No trip to the Isle of Wight is complete without stage, more than 500,000 hippies turned up to see
visiting The Needles, one of the most photographed The Doors, The Who, Joni Mitchell, and most famously,
groups of rocks in the world (though the ensemble Jimi Hendrix who played his last big concert here and
shrank from four to three when in 1764 the 120ft died only three weeks later, aged 27. The more recent
chalk rock known as “Lot’s Wife” crashed into the version of the Isle of Wight Festival, held in mid-June,
sea). When we arrived under blue skies, a spectacle still features some of England’s top music acts, in-
of nature unfolded in front of our eyes. Slowly but cluding REM and Coldplay.
powerfully white fog crept over the distinctive shapes

198 WDT MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018