Island Life Magazine Ltd December/January 2018 | Page 57

Local history
the Osborne estate to East Cowes and
Queen Victoria would pass by in her
carriage.
Inside a grand piano stood in the
music room, the perfectly round room
at the bottom of the circular tower. And
if you stood in the centre and spoke
the acoustics gave the impression of
surround sound - recitals here must
have been superb.
Doors led to the library and the
shelves were still full of books and
magazines. Dressers in the dining room
still held crockery and the huge mirrors,
whilst somewhat foxed with age, gave
a grand impression, as did the cracked
marble fireplace. The large dining table
was covered in silver cutlery, including a
whole drawer full of nutcrackers.
Upstairs the bedrooms lay mostly
empty apart from the odd piece of
furniture or pile of bric a brac, left
where a cupboard or chest of drawers
had been emptied. Two four poster
beds had survived, although both were
looking worse for wear.
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