life
ISLAND HISTORY
The Mount
Yarmouth’s Lost Landmark
D
riving out of Yarmouth towards
Newport the road gently rises,
reaches a plateau then descends.
On this high point stood The Mount, the
largest house ever to be built in Yarmouth.
It was erected by the Reverend George
Burrard a wealthy clergyman from
Lymington. 1801 was a good year for
Burrard for he was appointed chaplain
to King George III and also presented
to the living of Yarmouth by the Lord
Chancellor. At one time he held three
such appointments but for the present he
decided to make Yarmouth his home and
having purchased land on the outskirts of
the town, by 1809 the Mount was ready
for occupation.
The site could not have been better.
To the north was an uninterrupted view
50
of the Solent while to the south the
vista of Yarmouth Marsh provided an
ever changing landscape - one day rich
green pasture, the next a watery expanse
colonised by migrant birds.
The new mansion was very much in the
modern style, two storeys high with a
large bay at the front to afford the best
possible view. Tall windows admitted
plenty of light and at the back the sun was
in evidence all day. The servants’ wing
stood to the west and around the grounds
mature trees formed a windbreak.
The Reverend George was a busy man.
In addition to his spiritual duties he was
variously MP for Lymington, MP for
Yarmouth and Commissioner of Customs
for the Port of London. Having livings in
Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, he eventually
By Jan Toms
left Yarmouth, but when he died his
second wife, Edith returned to the Mount.
With the death of Edith’s daughter
Theresa, her grandchildren Roland and
Edith Cooper came to live with her and on
August 15 1866 young Edith married the
Reverend Robert Lewis Dashwood curate
at Shalfleet.
The Dashwoods had Plantagenet
connections and were related to the
Earl of Elgin of marbles fame. Not
surprisingly the wedding was a huge
occasion. The bride had fourteen
attendants, the great and good attended
the ceremony and two hundred and twenty
school children were treated to tea and
cake. While the young couple took off for
a continental honeymoon, the event was
rounded off with a firework display.
Island Life - www.isleofwight.net