Interesting details about Fernhill House, Wootton Bridge and the people who lived there by Doris G. Wilson.
Interesting details about Fernhill House, Wootton Bridge and the people who lived there by Doris G. Wilson.
Such is the situation of the opposite neighbourhood; the estate of Fernhill forms the other side of the picture; its plantations bordering the road, its grounds sloping along the margin of the expanded sheet of water that appears a fine lake, backed by woods and lofty downs.
In this situation the late Lord Bolton, Governor of the Island, erected this elegant mansion, but soon parted with it to the late possessor, Samue1 Shute, Esq., not long deceased. During the minority of his son, Thomas Deane Shute, it is in the occupation of his widow. By the taste of this family it has been highly embellished and brought to its present state of elegance. The house is a spacious edifice in the Gothic style, having some resemblance to a church. The front has an open corridor, rising to the upper windows, supported by five slender pillars of great height. At each end are the principal rooms, which are sumptuously'fitted up. The postern end has a large Gothic church window of great beauty, the upper part of which lights an elegant drawing room on the first floor. Behind rises a square tower surmounted by a small round gallery, whence is a most commanding view of the Island and opposite coast. The tower was illuminated by Lord Bolton, as Governor, on the occasion of the Royal visit to Spithead in 1794, and was visible to a great distance in every direction.
The grounds rank among the finest in the Island, the shrubbery extending to Wootton Bridge, and the plantations throughout are flourishing and luxuriant. The arbutus abounds here in perfection and various tender and exotic plants are to be found thriving amongst the sheltered walks."
Accompanying the foregoing description of Fernhill is an engraving by an artist whose name is not given, and a copy is shown on the front cover of this booklet. As artists usually include impressions of the occupants of the mansions they are commissioned to draw, I like to think that the three elegant ladies in the foreground are Mrs. Shute and her two step daughters, whilst Master Shute is standing a little to the right with two of his sisters and their dog leaping around them.
In the box of documents in the Record Office there is a book written in the most beautiful handwriting, which contains an inventory of the furniture at Fernhill at the time of Samuel Shute's death. To give an idea of the number of rooms and outhouses in the mansion, I have set them out below in the order they were written, although of course space is too limited to include the furniture in them. There were many beautiful and unusual pieces described in the inventory, and I have inserted one or two that caught my eye in case they should be of interest.
Glass. Linen. Plate. Books — long list. School Books.
Several "four - poster" beds were mentioned, together with "tent" and "field" bedsteads. There was also a "stump" bedstead in the Butler's Pantry.
To give an idea of the size of the main rooms of the house, I have included the carpets with their measurements.
The word "girondelle" rather intrigued me. I found it was spelt "girandole" in my modern dictionary, meaning a branching chandelier or candlestick.