Literary Heroes Trail Ventnor

About

Before Tennyson arrived on the Isle of Wight, Charles Dickens rented Winterbourne, Bonchurch in 1849. Here he began the novel David Copperfield. He wrote to his wife “It is the prettiest place I ever saw in my life.”

Poet Algernon Swinburne (1837 – 1909) grew up at East Dene, Bonchurch and is buried at St Boniface Church, Bonchurch. His funeral was a major event. One newspaper reported:  “tourists…trampled the primroses and violets in search of a convenient point of view”.

Thomas Hardy travelled to the Island to visit Swinburne’s grave in 1910.

A regular to the Isle of Wight for health reasons, Karl Marx visited the Island a number of times. His favourite place for a walk was Ventnor Downs.