BINSTEAD, 



ISLE OF WIGHT, 



THE SEAT OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD DOWNES. 



J.HE ancient history of the Isle of Wight points to those mighty pioneers of the human race, the 

 Phoenicians, as its first colonists, when it either formed part of the main land, or was divided from it 

 only at the flow of the tide. The Belgae subsequently made it the principal station of their commercial 

 intercourse with Gaul. From the Roman invasion its history is in a measure identical with that of 

 England, but more particularly marked with scenes of strife and bloodshed during the Saxon occupation, 

 many traditions being still extant which refer to the sanguinary conflicts of that race with the Danes. 

 In the reign of Edward the Confessor it was twice plundered by Earl Godwin ; and again, in the time 

 of Harold, by Earl Tosti. The Conqueror conferred its absolute government on William Fitz-Osborne, 

 afterwards Earl of Hereford ; and, according to Leland, Henry Beauchamp, Duke of Warwick, was 

 crowned King of the Isle of Wight by Henry VI. As is well known, the unfortunate Charles I 

 was confined in Carisbrook Castle, from which he was conveyed a prisoner to the solitary Castle 

 of Hurst but seven short weeks before his execution at Whitehall. From that time to the present its 

 internal tranquillity has been little disturbed ; the most melancholy circumstance connected with it being 

 the wreck of the Royal George at Spit head, in 1782, when, during many subsequent days, the receding 

 tide left on the Duver, now called the Strand, at Ryde, numerous bodies of its ill-fated crew, where 

 they were buried, and have since remained without a monument of any kind to preserve their memory 

 from oblivion. 



Binstead, at the time of the Domesday Survey, was called Benestede, and formed part of the 

 possessions of WiVli Filij Stur. The Church itself is not mentioned in that work, but, from the style 

 of the building before its restoration in 1842, it would seem to have been in existence prior to the 

 Conquest. It is still a remarkable construction, and of great interest to the antiquary. On the key-stone 

 of the gateway, leading to the Churchyard, there is a curious carved figure, which, whether with justice 

 or not appears doubtful, has been distinguished as a representation of the Saxon god, Thor. On the 

 eastern face of the hill, on which the Church stands, are the celebrated stone quarries from which 

 William of Wykeham obtained the material for the building of Winchester Cathedral. These ancient quarries 

 no doubt gave the name to Quarr Abbey, called in some of the oldest grants, Quarrarise, erected, about 

 a mile to the westward of Binstead, by Baldwin, Earl of Devon, in the thirty-second of Henry I, for 

 Cistercian Monks, and which was one of the first institutions of that order erected in England. Most 

 of the lands with which it was endowed were given in the reign of Stephen. The site consists 



