3-003-731 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Godshill Church, Isle of Wight, 1861. 'On the summit of...a picturesque and somewhat precipitous hill amid a wealth of foliage...rises a grey and ancient church, of considerable architectural beauty, and its sides are dotted with green graves and time-soiled tombs, wherein "the forefathers of the hamlet sleep". The village derives its name, Godshill, evidently enough, from the singular position of its admirable church on this lone, abrupt hill...The church (of which the old tradition is told, so common elsewhere to explain the position of sacred edifices on elevated or otherwise inconvenient sites, of spirits, either good or evil, transporting the materials from the valley below during the night, until the builders were constrained to acquiesce in the change of situation) stands on an isolated knoll, whose broken sides, rich in colouring and profuse vegetation, offer many tempting studies to an artist...the isolation of the knoll affords unbroken prospects on all sides'. From "Illustrated London News", 1861.