Isle of Wight – Hamilton Spectator

      For many years, I’ve been an island man, liking them for a variety of reasons. Perhaps it’s because I was born on an island, which, it sometimes seems, almost assures that throughout life a person has a preference for being by the sea, its salty scent in spring, its snowy ice in winter.So, it’s that way in my travels — I’m not just drawn to islands, but, in subsequent years, inevitably drawn back to them.

That meant that when Barbara and I went to England, we once again took the train from London — having acquired our travel ticket of choice, a BritRail Pass — and headed south through green landscape, to the coastal town of Southampton. We boarded a ferry for a half-hour crossing of the English Channel, in that location called The Solent, to an island that can honestly be called one of the most pastoral places in all of Europe: Isle of Wight.

The island, about four miles off the mainland, is just 23 miles across at its widest. It’s still part of the past, almost a framed replica of old England: tidy villages and small towns, a place with an unavoidable Atlantic scent in the air and a lot of British yesterdays among the people. The hotel we chose was an echo of all of that — The New Holmwood in Cowes, the town the ferry arrived in. It’s a small inn, dating to the 1800s, immaculate and quiet, with a dining room whose wide windows look out on a sweeping promenade, and then the wide sea where morning and evening the yachts and liners are on the horizon.

It has a small but memorable place in British history: in 1874, it’s said Randolph Churchill met Jenny Jerome who was staying at a next-door cottage. Thus met the parents-to-be of one of history’s greatest men, Winston Churchill. The New Holmwood combined competence and courtesy in that quiet understated way I like very much in so many British hotels and restaurants. The owner, David Titley, actually helped serve dinner, prepared with imagination and splendid presentation by chef Alan Reeves.

In recent years, the island’s tourism people seem to have focused on two main and very worthy objectives: maintaining the beautiful pastoral past (much of it an official heritage area) but also provide lots to do, so that every month, all year round, they post a list of activities from art shows to rock concerts to competitive marathons. Obviously, the island is ideal for walkers and hikers, so much so that there’s a booklet, the Coastal Path & Island Trails, available at the island tourist office which outlines walks from brief strolls to challenging hikes.

One that appeals to me is a walk from the town of Sandown to Shanklin, its greatest pleasure being that it is always close to the sea and its magnificent views. Still, for us, the great pleasure is simply to see not just the sea, but the towns, places with evocative names ringing with their unique history: Shanklin, Yarmouth, Sandown, Bembridge, Seaview, Freshwater. You can, of course, rent a car fo allr this, but the island’s bus services are so good. We always choose a bus line called Southern Vectis. I like the slogan on the sides of its buses: Island thinkers think Island Buses.

There’s a single bus route that will take you around the island, or you can go here and there one day at a time. Among the most memorable sights are those at Freshwater Bay, a hilly, breezy town near the cliffs. Alfred Lord Tennyson had a home here where he wrote Crossing the Bar. In Cowes there’s a world-renowned yacht race every summer that draws 16,000 participants, and you can visit the Sir Max Aitken Museum to see the artifacts of the man best known to us as Lord Beaverbrook,  who was born in Ontario.

One day we hopped in a taxi and asked to be taken to a hamlet called Havenstreet, home of the heritage Isle of Wight Steam Railway. It’s a true steam train, and while it has a few full-time ticket takers and conductors, most are volunteers. We sat alone in a plush private car, with wide facing velvet seats, as it passed through small fields and scented forests whose branches sometimes brushed our windows, for about a half-hour. It was a peaceful trip into an age that should never be lost.

The most historic and touching site on the Isle of Wight is just a mile or so from Cowes: a regal, dignified manor, the summer palace of one of the greatest monarchs of British history, Queen Victoria. The palace, called Osborne House, was created in the late 1840s, as a place where Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, could retreat from the heavy demands of royal life in London.It’s a spacious and quiet place, of Italian design, and its lower hallways and rooms are usually open for a small fee to visitors. The gardens are well worth strolling.

Make time for a visit to the room in Osborne House where on the early evening of Jan. 22, 1901, Queen Victoria died, and a chapter of world history closed.Every time we go to the Isle of Wight we return to Osborne House. I expect we always will out of respect for what Victoria was, and in memory, remains. No part of the country she served surpasses the Isle of Wight in keeping the past and its most memorable member of royalty vivid for world history.

Special to The Hamilton Spectator

If you go

Brit Rail pass: ACPRail.com

The New Holmwood: newholmwoodhotel.co.uk

Isle of Wight: visitengland.com, or visitwight.co.uk