OSBORNE 65: 



secluded spot are wonderfully restful and refreshing. Swiss 

 Cottage itself is built in the centre of the garden, on the 

 highest part of the gentle hill which gives the place so 

 much of its peculiar charm. In front of the quaint little 

 building a long and rather narrow lawn lies across the ridge 

 from the outer ring of trees on the north to the grove of 

 cypresses by the model fort. This lawn has two parallel 

 borders, full of most exquisite flowers, extending with scarce 

 a break from side to side of the garden. Between the flowers 

 there is a wide walk of lovely turf. The gay and yet har- 

 monious colouring of the flower-beds — set off^ to the best 

 possible advantage by the grass between them — the varied 

 foliage of an immense number of trees behind, the pic- 

 turesque old Chalet, partly hidden and partly seen, the 

 myriad blooms of old-fashioned Cluster Rose on one tall 

 pillar and Crimson Rambler on another, make the whole 

 scene one of superlative beauty. And the pleasure it affords 

 is not in any way lessened by the thought that the whole 

 idea of the garden and its horticulture is essentially British, 

 and owes nothing to statuary, fountains, pergolas or terraces. 



Behind the cottage there is a newly established and most 

 interesting wild garden, which merges almost insensibly into 

 Barton Wood. Near the south-eastern end of this woodland, 

 a little further along the seashore, is a place called King's 

 Quay. Tradition has it that this was the spot where Charles I. 

 landed in the island after his escape from Hampton Court in 

 1647, when making his way to Carisbrook Castle. Turning 

 inland again from here, a lane leads to Barton Manor in it& 

 sheltered and secluded vale. This property was added to the 

 Osborne estate some time after the first purchase. An oratory 

 for six chaplains and a clerk was founded here in 1275, but 

 about one hundred and fifty years afterwards it passed to 

 the Bishops of Winchester. Bishop Waynflete presented the 

 little property to Winchester College, who, after holding it 

 for more than four centuries, sold it to Queen Victoria. The 

 house is a remarkably fine specimen of a sixteenth-century 

 manor-house, but was in a very bad state of repair when it 



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