Chapter 2

The next owner of Brownsea was a Mr. Benson, who succeeded Sir Christopher Wren as first surveyor of works. When he bought the island, he began to alter the old castle and make it into a residence. The burgesses of Poole claimed that the castle was a national defence, of which they were the hereditary custodians. Mr. Benson replied that as he had paid _L_300 for the entire island the castle was naturally included. In 1720 the town authorities appealed to George II, and in 1723 Mr. Benson and his counsel appeared before the Attorney-general, when the proceedings were adjourned, and never resumed, so that the purchaser appears to have obtained a grant of the castle from the Crown. Mr. Benson was an enthusiastic botanist and he planted the island with various kinds of trees and shrubs. He also made a collection of the many specimens of plants growing on the island.

During the next hundred and thirty years Brownsea had various owners, including Colonel Waugh (notorious for his connection with the disastrous failure of the British Bank) and the Right Hon. Frederick Cavendish Bentinck, who restored the castle and imported many beautiful specimens of Italian sculpture and works of art. At the end of 1900 the estate was bought by Mr. Charles Van Raalte, to whose widow it still belongs.

Shortly before his death Mr. Van Raalte wrote a brief account of his island home, which closed with the following lines:--

"All through the island the slopes are covered with rhododendrons, juniper, Scotch firs, insignis, macrocarpa, Corsican pines, and many other varieties of evergreens, plentifully mingled with cedars and deciduous forest trees. Wild fowl in great variety visit the island, and the low-lying land within the sea-wall is the favourite haunt of many sea-birds; and several varieties of plover, the redshank, greenshank, sandpiper, and snipe may be found there. The crossbill comes very often, and the green woodpecker's cry is quite familiar. But perhaps the most beautiful little winged creature that favours us is the kingfisher."

A prominent feature on the mainland as seen from Brownsea is the little Early English church of Arne, standing on a promontory running out into the mud-banks of the estuary, and terminating in a narrow tongue of land known as Pachin's Point. At one time Arne belonged to the Abbey of Shaftesbury, and it is said that the tenants of the estate, on paying their rent, were given a ticket entitling them to a free dinner at the Abbey when they were passing through Shaftesbury. The vast size of Poole Harbour is realized when we consider that, excluding the islands, its extent is ten thousand acres, and from no other spot does the sheet of water look more imposing than from the wooded heights and sandy shores of Brownsea. At low tide several channels can be traced by the darker hue of the water as it winds between the oozy mud-banks, but at high tide the whole surface is flooded, and there lies the great salt lake with her green islands set like emerald gems on a silver targe.

Eastwards from Bournemouth Pier the cliffs are bold and lofty, and are broken only by small chines or narrow gullies. On the summit of the cliff a delightful drive has been constructed, while an undercliff drive, extending for a mile and a half between Bournemouth Pier and Boscombe Pier, was formally opened with great festivities on 3rd June, 1914. Boscombe Chine, the only large opening on the eastern side of Bournemouth, must have been formerly rich in minerals, and Camden, who calls it "Bascombe", tells us that it had a "copperas house". On the eastern side of the Chine a spring has been enclosed, the water being similar to the natural mineral water of Harrogate. The whole of the Chine has been laid out as a pleasure garden, although care has been taken to preserve much of its natural wildness. Unlike most of the other chines along this stretch of shore, the landward termination of Boscombe Chine is very abrupt, which is the more remarkable as the little stream by which it is watered occupies only a very slight depression beyond the Christchurch road on its way down to the sea from Littledown Heath. Boscombe House stood formerly in the midst of a fine wood of Scotch pines. The estate is now being rapidly developed for residential purposes. The house was the home for many years of descendants of the poet Shelley, who erected a monument in Christchurch Priory to the memory of their illustrious ancestor. The house lies between the Christchurch road and the sea, and was almost entirely rebuilt by Sir Percy Shelley about the middle of the nineteenth century. The rapid growth of Boscombe may be gauged by the fact that between thirty and forty years ago Boscombe House and a few primitive cottages were the only buildings between Bournemouth and Pokesdown. Like her parent of Bournemouth, whom she closely resembles, Boscombe is built on what was once a stretch of sandy heaths and pine-woods. A pier was opened here in 1889 by the Duke of Argyll. It was built entirely by private enterprise, and it was not until 1904 that it was taken over by the Corporation. To the east of the pier the cliffs have been laid out as gardens, much of the land having been given by the owners of Boscombe House on their succeeding to the estate. The roads here are very similar to those of Bournemouth, with their rows of pines, and villas encircled by the same beautiful trees. A peculiar designation of Owl's Road has no direct connection with birds, but is commemorative of _The Owl_, a satirical journal in which Sir Henry Drummond Wolfe, a large landowner of Boscombe, was greatly interested.

From Boscombe Pier very pleasant walks can be taken along the sands or on the cliffs. From the sands a long slope leads up to Fisherman's Walk, a beautiful pine-shaded road, although houses are now being built and so somewhat despoiling the original beauty of the spot. The cliffs may be regained once more at Southbourne, and after walking for a short distance towards Hengistbury Head the road runs inland to Wick Ferry, where the Stour can be crossed and a visit paid to the fine old Priory of Christchurch. Wick Ferry is one of the most beautiful spots in the neighbourhood, and is much resorted to by those who are fond of boating. Large and commodious ferry-boats land passengers on the opposite bank within a few minutes' walk of Christchurch. The main road from Bournemouth to Christchurch crosses the Stour a short distance inland from Wick Ferry by Tuckton Bridge with its toll-house, a reminder that, by some old rights, toll is still levied on all those who cross the Stour, whether they use the bridge or the ferry.

Bournemouth is very proud of her Public Gardens, as she has every right to be. Out of a total area of nearly 6000 acres no fewer than 694 acres have been laid out as parks and pleasure grounds. The Pleasure Gardens are divided by the Square, that central meeting-place of the town's tramway system, into two portions, known as the Lower and the Upper Gardens. These follow the course of the Bourne stream, and they have had a considerable influence in the planning of this portion of the town. The Pinetum is the name given to a pine-shaded avenue that leads from the Pier to the Arcade Gate. Here, in storm or shine, is shelter from the winter wind or shade from the summer sun, while underfoot the fallen acicular leaves of the pines are impervious to the damp. These Gardens are more than a mile and a half in extent, and are computed to possess some four miles of footpaths. The Upper Gardens are contained within the Branksome estate, and are consequently thrown open to the public only by the courtesy of the owner. They extend to the Coy Pond, and are much quieter and less thronged with people than the Lower Gardens, with their proximity to the Pier and the shore.

Another of those picturesque open spaces which do so much to beautify the town is Meyrick Park, opened in 1894, and comprising some hundred and twenty acres of undulating land on which an eighteen-hole golf course has been constructed. Another course of a highly sporting character is in Queen's Park, reached by way of the Holdenhurst Road. Beyond the Meyrick Park Golf Links lie the Talbot Woods, a wide extent of pine forest which may fittingly be included in Bournemouth's parks. These woods are the property of the Earl of Leven and Melville, who has laid down certain restrictions which must be observed by all visitors. Bicycles are allowed on the road running through the woods, but no motor cars or dogs, and smoking is rightly forbidden, as a lighted match carelessly thrown among the dry bracken with which the woods are carpeted would cause a conflagration appalling to contemplate.

The famous Winter Gardens are under the management of the Corporation, and in 1893 the spacious glass Pavilion was taken over by the same authority. It may be mentioned incidentally that Bournemouth spends a sum of six thousand pounds annually in providing band music for her visitors. The full band numbers no fewer than fifty musicians, and is divided into two portions, one for the Pier, the other for the Pavilion. The Winter Gardens are charmingly laid out with shrubs and ornamental flower beds, and on special gala days clusters of fairy lights give an added brilliancy to the scene.

Boscombe possesses her own group of gardens and open spaces. Boscombe Chine Gardens extend from the Christchurch Road to the mouth of the Chine. At the shore end is an artificial pond where the juvenile natives meet the youthful visitors for the purpose of sailing toy ships. The Knyveton Gardens lie in the valley between Southcote Road and Knyveton Road, and cover some five acres of land. King's Park, and the larger Queen's Park, together with Carnarvon Crescent Gardens, show that Boscombe attaches as much importance as Bournemouth to the advantages of providing her visitors and residents with an abundance of open spaces, tastefully laid out, and having, in some cases, tennis courts and bowling greens.

The piers of both Bournemouth and Boscombe are great centres of attraction for visitors, apart from those who only use them for the purpose of reaching the many steamboats that ply up and down the coast. A landing pier of wood, eight hundred feet long and sixteen feet in width, was opened on 17th September, 1861. It cost the modest sum of _L_4000. During the winter of 1865-6 many of the wooden piles were found to have rotted, and were replaced by iron piles. A considerable portion of the pier was treated in a similar manner in 1866, and again in 1868. With this composite and unsightly structure Bournemouth was content until 1878, when the present pier was commenced, being formally opened in 1880. It was extended in 1894, and again in 1909. Boscombe Pier, as already stated, was opened in 1889 by the then Duke of Argyll.

Of Bournemouth's many modern churches that of St. Peter, situated at the junction of the Gervis and the Hinton Roads, has interesting historical associations, apart from its architectural appeal.

In the south transept John Keble used to sit during his prolonged stay at Bournemouth in the closing years of his life. He is commemorated by the "Keble Windows", and the "Keble Chapel", within the church, and by a metal tablet affixed to the house "Brookside", near the pier, where he passed away in 1866. The churchyard is extremely pretty, being situated on a well-wooded hillside. The churchyard cross was put up in July, 1871. In the churchyard are buried the widow of the poet Shelley, together with her father, Godwin the novelist, and her mother, who was also a writer of some distinction. Taken altogether, this church, with its splendid windows and richly-wrought reredos and screens, is one of the most pleasing modern churches in the country, both with regard to its architecture and its delightful situation.

This hillside churchyard under the pine trees, together with "Brookside", where Keble lived, and Boscombe Manor, with its memories of the Shelleys, are the only literary shrines Bournemouth as yet possesses.

Mary Godwin, whose maiden name was Wollstonecraft, was an Irish girl who became literary adviser to Johnson, the publisher, by whom she was introduced to many literary people, including William Godwin, whom she married in 1797. Their daughter Mary, whose birth she did not survive, became the poet Shelley's second wife. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was one of the earliest writers on woman's suffrage, and her _Vindications of the Rights of Women_ was much criticized on account of, to that age, the advanced views it advocated. Among her other books was a volume of _Original Stories for Children_, illustrated by William Blake.

Her father, William Godwin, was a native of Wisbeach, where he was born in 1756, and at first he was ordained for the Presbyterian ministry. He was the author of a good many novels and philosophical works. In the later years of his life he was given the office of "Yeoman Usher of the Exchequer".

It was Mary Godwin with whom Shelley eloped to Italy in 1814, and whom he married in 1816, on the death of his first wife, Harriet Westbrook, who drowned herself. In 1851, Mary Shelley was laid by the side of her father and mother, brought down from St. Pancras Churchyard, and her own son, and the woman who was loved by that son, all now sleep their last sleep under the greensward of St. Peter's Church. To many of us it is the one spot in Bournemouth most worth visiting. Climbing the wooded hill we stand by the Shelley grave, and think of how much intellect, aspiration, and achievement lies there entombed, and of the pathetic cenotaph to the memory of the greatest of all the Shelleys in the fine old Priory of Christchurch, five miles away.

Previous to his coming to Bournemouth to recover his health, John Keble was vicar of Hursley, near Winchester. _The Christian Year_, upon which his literary position must mainly rest, was published anonymously in 1827. It met with a remarkable reception, and its author becoming known, Keble was appointed to the Chair of Poetry at Oxford, which he held until 1841. In the words of a modern writer, "Keble was one of the most saintly and unselfish men who ever adorned the Church of England, and, though personally shy and retiring, exercised a vast spiritual influence upon his generation". His "Life" was written by J. D. Coleridge in 1869, and again, by the Rev. W. Lock, in 1895.

The Stour valley, with its picturesque river scenery, forms a charming contrast to the seaboard of Bournemouth and her suburbs of Boscombe and Southborne, while to those who are fond of river boating the whole district is full of attraction. For the pedestrian the valley is very accessible. The route from Bournemouth is by way of the Upper Gardens, and right through the Talbot Woods to Throop, where the banks of the river are covered with trees. The village is a straggling one, and the mill and weir give an additional charm to some of the prettiest river scenery in the neighbourhood. A short distance from Throop is the village of Holdenhurst, which, with Throop, forms one parish.

While in this district a visit may be paid to Hurn, or Heron Court, the seat of the Earl of Malmesbury. The house, largely rebuilt since it was owned by the Priors of Christchurch, is not shown to the public, but the park, with its beautiful plantation of rhododendrons, may be seen from the middle of May till the end of June, that is, when the flowers are in full bloom. From Holdenhurst the return journey may be made by way of Iford, and so on to the main road at Pokesdown, whence Bournemouth is soon reached.

To those who visit the ancient town of Poole for the first time by road from Bournemouth, it is difficult to tell where the one town ends and the other begins, so continuous are the houses, shops, and other buildings which line each side of the main thoroughfare; and this notwithstanding that to the left hand of the road connecting the two places lies the charming residential district of Parkstone, where the houses on a pine-clad slope look right over the great harbour of Poole. As a matter of fact Bournemouth is left long before Parkstone is reached. The County Gates not only mark the municipal boundaries of Bournemouth, but they indicate also, as their title implies, that they divide the counties of Hampshire and Dorset. Thus it is that although the beautiful houses of Branksome and Parkstone are linked to those of Bournemouth by bricks and mortar, as well as by road, rail, and tramway, they otherwise form no part of it. They are in Dorset, and county rivalry is never stronger or keener than where two beautiful residential districts face each other from opposite sides of a boundary line. Bournemouth would dearly like to take Parkstone, a natural offshoot from herself, under her municipal care, but if this were done Dorset would lose some of her most valuable rateable property, as, between them, Poole and Parkstone pay no less than one-fifth of the whole of the county rate of Dorset.

Just beyond Parkstone a lovely view is obtained of Poole Harbour from the summit of Constitution Hill.

Poole and Hamworthy, with their many industries and busy wharves, form a piquant contrast to spick-and-span Bournemouth with her tidy gardens and well-dressed crowds; but whatever the port of Poole may lack in other ways she has an abundance of history, although her claim to figure as a Roman station has been much disputed. We do know, however, that after the Norman Conquest Poole was included in the neighbouring manor of Canford, and its first charter was granted by William Longspee, Earl of Salisbury. It was not until the reign of the third Edward that the town became of much importance. This monarch used it as a base for fitting out his ships during the protracted war with France, and in 1347 it furnished and manned four ships for the siege of Calais. The lands that lie between Poole and Hamworthy were held in the Middle Ages by the Turbervilles, of Bere Regis, and during the Stuart period by the Carews, of Devonshire. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth the town had a considerable commerce with Spain until the war with that country put a stop to this particular traffic. As some compensation for their losses in this direction Elizabeth granted the town two new charters, and confirmed all its ancient privileges. During the Great Rebellion the town was held for the Parliament, and in 1642 the Royalist forces, under the leadership of the Marquis of Hertford, attempted its capture, but were forced to retreat.

The town is situated on a peninsula on the north side of Poole Harbour, and at one time it was the home of many smugglers. Part of an old smuggler's house has recently been discovered in the town.

The quayside is always a busy spot, and a good deal of shipbuilding and repairing is still carried on. The town is full of old houses, although many of them are hidden behind modern fronts.

In 1885 the late Lord Wimborne presented the Corporation with some forty acres of land to be converted into a Public Park. This land has been carefully laid out, and includes tennis courts and a spacious cricket ground.

As a seaport the town was of great importance and the Royalists spared no efforts to effect its capture, but like the other Dorset port of Lyme Regis, so gallantly defended by Robert Blake, afterwards the famous admiral, Poole held out to the end. Clarendon, the Royalist historian of the Great Rebellion, makes a slighting reference to the two towns. "In Dorsetshire", he says, "the enemy had only two little fisher towns, Poole and Lyme." The "little fisher towns", however, proved a thorn in the sides of the Royalists, some thousands of whom lost their lives in the fierce fighting that took place at Poole, and particularly around Lyme Regis.

The merchants of Poole became wealthy by their trade with Newfoundland, a commerce that commenced in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and lasted until well on in the reign of Queen Victoria. The trade is said to have been conducted on the truck system, and the merchants grew rich by buying both their exports and imports wholesale while disposing of them at retail prices.

Not far from the quay is an almshouse, built in 1816 by George Garland, a wealthy merchant of the town, who, on the occasion of a great feast in 1814, presented "one honest plum-pudding of one hundredweight" towards the entertainment. Farther on is a house built in 1746 by Sir Peter Thompson. It is a good specimen of Georgian architecture, and still bears the heraldic arms of the merchant who built it. Sir Peter's house is now Lady Wimborne's "Cornelia Hospital". Most of the other old houses of the town's merchants have been modernized and sadly disfigured. The oldest almshouses--and the number of ancient almshouses in a town is a sure guide to its old-time prosperity--were built originally in the reign of the fifth Henry, and for many years belonged to the Guild of St. George. In 1547, at the Reformation, they passed to the Crown, with all the other property of the Guild, and in 1550 they were purchased by the Corporation. Needless perhaps to say, they have been rebuilt more than once, although they have continuously provided for the poor for more than five hundred years.

An interesting antiquarian find was made in a ditch near Poole a few years ago of the seal of John, Duke of Bedford, under whose rule as Regent of France Joan of Arc was burned. The occurrence of the seal on this spot was due, without doubt, to this noble having been Lord of Canford and Poole.

Near the church, a modern building on the site of an older one, is a small gateway which may possibly have been a water gate, as traces of sea-weed were found clinging to it when the adjacent soil was excavated.

Older than any other buildings in Poole are the so-called "Town Cellars", referred to variously in the town's remarkable collection of records as the "Great Cellar", the "King's Hall", and the "Woolhouse". The original purpose of the building has not yet been definitely determined. It is largely of fourteenth-century date, and its doorways and windows have a decidedly ecclesiastical appearance. At the same time there is no evidence whatever that it ever formed part of a monastic foundation, or was ever built for religious purposes. The old battered building was the scene of at least one fierce fight, when a combined French and Spanish fleet attacked the town to revenge themselves on the dreaded buccaneer, Harry Paye, or Page, who had been raiding the shores of France and Spain. When the hostile fleets entered Poole Harbour early one morning five hundred years ago, the town was taken by surprise. The intrepid "Arripay", as his enemies rendered the name, was absent on one of his expeditions, but his place was worthily taken by his brother, who was killed in the fighting. The Town Cellars were full of stores and munitions of war, and when the building had been captured and set on fire, the townsmen retired, while the victorious Spaniards, who had been reinforced by the French after a first repulse, returned with a few prisoners to their ships, and sailed out of the harbour, having given the mariners of Poole the greatest drubbing they have ever received in the long history of the place.