Reference
X955/1/5
Title
To Mr Richard Colenutt
Date free text
21 October 1876
Production date
From: 1876 To: 1976
Scope and Content
I enclose Maccalls (1) Lost Edens. Only a very few copies were printed, and in consequence I have had difficulty in getting one. This accounts for the delay. The lady whom you and I saw at Ventnor is known to some friends of mine. She was a Greek named Spartali and married the Greek consul at Crete. Her rich father was very angry at the marriage and refused to be reconciled to her but is now partly mollified. Her husband is an Englishman who was dismissed by our Foreign Office for some official impropriety, but nothing affecting his character. She was an artist and was a pupil of Maddox Brown’s (3). She is a noted beauty amongst her circle.
Tell Kate (2) that the Colenutts were all gentlemen in ancient times. In Worsley’s History of the Isle of Wight.. Quarto, published in 1781, I find that the manor of Pann in the island was granted in the seventh year of Edward VI to Leonard Brown and John Troops as trustees for Thomas Carew, Esquire, who sold it to Colnett, and in the year 1629 Sir John Oglander (4) wrote a list of the gentleman of the island and better class of farmers who belonged to a society which used to dine together twice a week at a house on St.George’s Down. In the list amongst the gentlemen is Mr. Barnabie Colnutt of Pann. The name is also mentioned elsewhere in the island history.
The two oldest names in the records of families now existing are, so far as my knowledge goes, Oglander (3) and Wavell, but probably you would recognize others. The book is interesting, and amongst other plates contains a picture of Appuldurcombe House which the owner ought religiously to have preserved.
Best love to all. We are all pretty well, excepting miserable colds arising from the sudden change of weather.
Faithfully yours
W.Hale White
(1) Maccall, William (1812–1888) confirmed in letter 27 note
(2). The Colenutts daughter (3) Probably Ford Maddox Brown (1821–1893).(4) Oglander, Sir John (1585–1655), diarist.
Level of description
item