The Palatka news and advertiser., 1917-03-02

butter and tea for any other! Mrs
Pick, who is eighty years old and has
given husband and two sons to the
army, has never been off the island
and knows but little of any other
world than that Immediately surround
ing her CHEEKY, tidy cottage where she
serves, on demand, "everything of the
best, sir" for sixpence a person.
From the castle back to Cowes, by
way of Osborne, is a drive of pano-
ramic beauty. The road follows the
backbone of the Island, affording on
either side landscape views of river,
country and downs, with more inti-
mate glimpses of sheep herds and vii
lage life that are "as pictured song"
Then comes Osborne, with wooded
vistas, gardens, terraces, bay views
and all the SACRED and soul-moving
attractions which cling about home
which has once been the abode of roy
atty.
1t is regarded as the glory of Os-
borne that here Her Majesty spent no
inconsiderable portion of her married
life; that this was the real home of
the Prince Consort and the queen who
was above all else wife and mother;
that here, when the blow of her hus-
bands death had fallen upon her, Vic
toria sought privacy and solace; and
that here she died. After the death
of the queen, Osborne was presented
as a gift to the nation by her son,
King Edward VII, and while it will
ever be sacred to the memory of her
whom England loved, it is no longer
the residence of sovereign.
The State Apartments, the Museum,
the Swiss Cottage, which was the
playhouse for the royal children, and
a portion of the grounds are kept open
to the public. The other portion of
the building and the remainder of the
grounds are used as a naval college
and a home for convalescent soldiers
and sailors. So Osborne remains not
only q place for show and of national
reverence, but is also of immense val
ue to the nation in way that per-
haps the good queen herself might
have chosen.
Dotting the island coast there is,
notably, Rvde, presenting front very
different from that which the satirical
pen of Fielding pictured in its early
days when accommodations for travel
ers were crude and when a shrewish
landlady made his enforced stay so
unpleasant. In the "back of the is
land" there is Ventnor, lying snugly
under the grim cliffs, enjoying q lux
uriance of myrtle and vine that at
tracts invalids in numbers. And
tucked away among trees and flowers
on the borders of Freshwater Bay is
Farri. .gford, the chosen home of AL
fred Tennyson, while he was poet lau-
reate of England. 1t was here and
of this that he wrote:
"Far from the noise and smoky town
I watch the twilight falling brown,
All round a careless ordered garden
Close to the ridge of noble down.
"Groves of pine on either hand
To break the blasts of winter, stand,
And further, on the hoary channel
Tumbles breaker on chalk and sand"
On the Freshwater down stands a
beacon light which is national monu-
ment to the memory of Tennyson,
erected by command of the Queen in
1897.
Wight has not been fertile in native
celebrities, although Newport boasts
that she furnished Queen Elizabeth
with three of her most trusted SER
wants, "Onc for her soul, one for her
body and one for her goods"-a min
lister, a physician and lawyer. Be-
sides, there was a Lord Chief Justice,
native of Newport, remarkable solely