A PRESENT FROM SEAVIEW 1 W. ANGUS A PRESENT FROM SEAVIEW AN ALBUM OF GEORGIAN PRINTS, AND VICTORIAN AND CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHS WITH A NUMBER OF EARLY PRINTS, DRAWINGS AND PAINTINGS GUY AND ZIRPHIE PARSLOE SECOND EDITION WITH ADDITIONAL PAINTINGS AND DRAWINGS, AND NEW PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN AND PHYLLIDA PARSLOE EPSOM 2004 Published by FALCON PRESS SDN BHD 57A, Jalan 5/58, Gasing Indah 46000 Petaling Jaya, Selangor Malaysia First edition published in Great Britain by The Southern Publishing Co. (Westminster Press Ltd.) Brighton, 1979 © Guy Parsloe 1979 Second edition 2004 © John and Phyllida Parsloe 1 Woodcote Green House, Epsom, Surrey KT18 7DF All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. ISBN 983 2615 04 6 Printed in Malaysia by Vinlin Press Sdn Bhd. DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF EMMA JULIA and JOHN GREEN FAIERS who first brought us to Seaview PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION Our parents published the first edition of this work in 1979. photographs and have revised captions. A number of The bulk of the book consists of reproductions of the additional photographs, drawings and pictures have been Victorian photographs of Seaview and its surroundings included as explained in the Editors’ Note to the Second matched by photographs as nearly as possible of the same Edition at the end of the Note on Pictures scenes in 1978. The old photographs came from a family Advantage has been taken of the new techniques for photograph album which our father acquired in the course of reproducing photographs and the copies of the old his retirement business as an antiquarian bookseller. For many photographs are sharper than the originals and have had years it was available, always at the price of £3.95, from local background blemishes removed where possible. The prints bookshops that our mother zealously kept supplied on her have been darkened to heighten contrast. The decision to use frequent visits to the island. It has now been out of print for colour for the modern photographs was a difficult one but it some time and in over 20 years a good deal has changed in is hoped that on balance this adds to the attraction of the Seaview, not least the price of books! book and makes recognition of the views easier. This new edition follows the format of the first and The original book is dedicated to the memory of our the Introduction is unchanged, as largely is the Note on the mother’s parents. Our father died in 1985 aged 85 and our Pictures and the captions to the Victorian photographs. The mother in 2000 aged 96. This edition is dedicated, naturally, 1978 photographs by Dennis Robinson (with the exception to their memory. of no. 82a) have been replaced with new colour photographs taken recently. These follow rather than precede the Victorian John and Phyllida Parsloe September 2003 11 CONTENTS Page A NOTE ON THE PICTURES 13 INTRODUCTION 17 ILLUSTRATIONS Fairy Hill, 1793 Frontispiece Prints from Sewell’s Sacred Thoughts, 1835 16, 18, 19, 24, 25 Seaview from the sea c.1840 30 Print from Holloway’s Souvenir (c.1845) 31 Photographs of 1868-88 32-84 and 88-108 (even numbers) Salterns Cottages, 1904 87 Corresponding photographs of 2002 (and one of 1978 on page 105) 33-109 (odd numbers) Fairy Hill, 2002 110 Sea Grove House and Seafield House, 2002 112 Seaview House, 2002 113 Seagrove Bay 114 Priory Bay 1797 115 ADDENDUM Four drawings of Seaview by Miss Waverley, 1831 117 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 123 13 A NOTE ON THE PICTURES The frontispiece is reproduced from a hand-coloured print of topographical artists at this time. Montague Charles Owen’s Fairy Hill engraved by W. Angus from a painting by J. M. privately printed The Sewells of the Isle of Wight, undated but Oglander and published August 1st, 1793. The painter was printed 1906, yields no clue. Jane Mary, wife of John Oglander, Warden of New College, The print of Seaview from the sea on p. 31 is taken Oxford. (See C. Aspinall-Oglander, Nunwell Symphony, pp. from Holloway’s Souvenir of the Isle of Wight ... Tinted 170, 185). Engravings on Wood, Ryde, n.d. (but about 1845). The five pictures numbered 2 to 6 on pp. 16, 18-9 Thirty seven of the photographs which form the main and 24-5 are reproduced from a small book entitled Sacred body of the book (printed on the left hand page of each Thoughts in Verse, by William Sewell, M.A., Fellow and Tutor opening) come from a Victorian album, now in the editors’ of Exeter College, Oxford, published in London by James possession. It is inscribed on the inside end paper “Mary M. Bohn, 1835. Two of the five pictures are signed E.M.S., i.e. Murray from her Mother 8th Nov. 1903”. The pictures of Ellen Mary Sewell, sister of the author of the verses. In Seaview and neighbourhood are the last group, following postscript William Sewell expresses regret at the inclusion of similar batches or single prints of Richmond and “anything like embellishment” in this second edition of his neighbouring parishes, Great and Little Bookham, Hampton verses, but acknowledges a debt to “persons very dear to me” Court, Windsor, Broadstairs, London, Winchester, for views “from local scenery, connected with the subjects of Wellington College, St. Servan, Dinard, Dinan, Jersey, the poems”. The connexion is not apparent to this reader, but Shanklin, Ventnor, Freshwater and other Island scenes. Dates Sea View (as they wrote the name) clearly had pleasant are given in manuscript between 1865 on the first page associations for several of the twelve children of Thomas (Richmond) and 1888 (the latest of Seaview). Sewell, Solicitor, of Newport, and his wife Jane, since they Of the Seaview full plate pictures at least twelve were gave that name to the house at Bonchurch which they presumably professional work; these are mounted on card acquired in 1844. It would be interesting to find a link which and have printed captions. Eight of the twelve (nos. 15, 17, would explain why five of the eighteen prints in this book are 31, 35, 41, 49, 61 and 81 on pages 38, 40, 54, 58, 64, 72, of scenes which attracted so little attention from 84 and 104 respectively) were “published by F. H. Dawson, 14 A Present From Seaview Sea View, Isle of Wight”: one (no. 53 on page 76) has a our nebulous and divergent ideas and also the many members printed caption in the Dawson style: the other three (nos. 67, of our family and friends who have encouraged us and helped 69 and 75 on pages 90, 92 and 98) respectively were with memories, suggestions, criticisms and even “photographed and published by F. N. Broderick, Junr., contributions. Ryde”. J. W. Hill’s Directory of the Isle of Wight, 2nd edition, 1879, lists F. H. Dawson as house and estate agent, toy and EDITORS’ NOTE fancy repository, Regent House, and Mrs. Dawson as drapery, TO THE SECOND EDITION stationery repository, and post office; she was Post Mistress. The same directory lists Frederick N. Broderick junr., The old photographs are reproduced in or close to the landscape and architectural photographer, Aurora villa, top of original size with the exception of those on pages 34, 36, 46, West Street, Ryde. His fine photographs are well-known at 48, 50, 52, 60, 78, 80 and 82, which are enlarged snapshots. the County Record Office. The colour photographs were taken by the editors in The cover picture of the Pier is based on a 2002. photograph in One Hundred and One Views of the Isle of There are additional contemporary photographs 74b Wight, published by Rock Bros. Ltd., n.d. (about 1905). and 76b and c, six contemporary photographs of old Seaview The decoration on the end-papers is based upon the houses (nos. 87-90b), replacing the three in the first edition, Ordnance Survey 25" = 1 mile map of 1862. and seven other new pictures (nos. 7, 10, 77, 83, 86, 91 and For the 1978 photographs we thank our friend Denis 92): Robinson, who spent two days in September, one mostly in the rain, searching out the positions from which the old No. 7 is a reproduction of a watercolour of 1_ pictures were taken, only to find several of them now totally Seaview from the sea of about 1840 measuring 10 2 " x inaccessible except to birds! 7". It is slightly earlier than the print from Holloway’s A great many old books have yielded material for the Souvenir on the facing page but some ten years later Introduction; the most important are named there. We must, than the drawing of “Seaview from the opposite field” however, acknowledge a special debt to Mr. R. J. Cheverton in the Addendum. Mr. S.I. Mathews sold this picture to and Mr. S. L. Matthews, whose Memories of Old Seaview, is a our parents after publication of the first edition with treasury of information mostly recoverable only by years of the request that it should be made available for Seaview research, if at all, and then desperately in need of the kiss of residents. Including a copy in this edition is intended in life. part to fulfil this request. We thank Phyllida for creating the cover design from No. 10 is a contempory view from the sea to be A Present From Seaview 15 compared with no.