VECTIS, the isle of Wight

I S L E   O F   W  I G H T

They called the island 'Wight' meaning raised or what was over the sea. 

Then the Romans arrived in 43 AD and translated Wight in the name VECTIS

from the Latin 'veho' meaning lifting.

Island off the South Coast of  Hampshire, England. 

It is ideally located in the English Channel, two or five miles away from New Hampshire's coast. 

The Soleny is the narrow arm of water which separates it from Great Britain.

It was settled by Jutes, according to Bede the Venerable in his history of England.

One of the most beautiful villages of England is located in the middle of the island; Godshill, painted by British artist Edward Robert Sturgeon.

The island, 384 square kilometer and 142.000 inhabitants became famous as a holliday resort when Queen Victoria had her palace built in Osborne.

Mark Robert is also born there and spent his youth at Sanshank.
Its closed location and its soft climate explains its high population.
Its highest point is Saint Boniface Downs and reaches 241 metres.

It is also the home land of poet Agernon Charles Swynburne, son of an admiral. He grew up in a small castle East Eden in Bonchurch near the famous sea resort Ventnor, which is the most southward point of the island.

The poet Charles Swynburne spent his youth in East  Eden castle in Bonchurch which belonged to his family, part of the English aristocracy. He went later to Eton college, where he met the Pre raphaelites Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Wiliam Moris and Edward Burne Jones. He wrote "Atalante in Calydon" and "Songs before Sunrise"

Although he was rather frail and weak, Swynburne succeded the first to climb Culver Cliff.

The lawn behind the castle stretches to the sea, where a small beach of pebbles is accessible for the castle visitors who are mostly students of international schools. They learn English in an exclusive surrounding, like the Belgian school Depauw international of Courtrai.