I went to the village of Freshwater on the Isle of Wight to find Tennyson's house Farringford, which is a location in my second novel of the Durant trilogy: Castles in the Air.  One of the main characters in my story, Ella Durant, dedicated a poem to Tennyson in her book of poetry Pine Needles and or Sonnets: (1884)


Engraved on my heart too deep to fade
As one great joy will outlive many a grief...
Were simple words of welcome
That have made a lasting memory
Of sweet hours too brief.

 Freshwater is a step back in time. It appears nothing has changed in this small coastal village since Ella Durant visited it over one hundred years ago. Given its history I would be surprised if it wasn't a haven for artists and writers. The beauty of the cliffs and rolling hills is astounding.

After finding Farringford, which is not open to the public, I went to the Dimbola Museum, once home of the famous photographer, Julia Margaret Cameron. I found a reference in a letter from Thomas C. Durant to his daughter Ella Durant dated April 1874 in which he stated he would allow Ella to stay with Mrs. Cameron in Freshwater. I speculate that the photo below may have actually been done by Cameron, although I don't know for sure. But in it Ella poses with her brother William and other friends at Isle of Wight, it is dated 1874. Anne Thackeray Ritchie, a friend of Julia Cameron, stands tall in the back, facing right.

The museum holds a small collection of her photos and a collection of cameras that would interest any photography enthusiast. I however, am always looking for the folklore wherever I visit, those tidbits that tell you a lot about how people lived and their special relationships. Cameron had a large circle of intellectuals and artists staying in or near Freshwater and she was known for her impromptu parties and recitals. Indeed, there is a family tree of sorts hanging in one of the rooms showing her connection to people such as Robert Browning, Ellen Terry (actress), Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) and Charles Darwin - all the people that visited her regularly in Freshwater.

I was most intrigued by the special backdoor entrance at Dimbola, a gate just for Tennyson. The two collaborated on a photographic representation of his work, Idylls of the Kings,  in 1874. Literature from the museum stated they were dear friends. Cameron would walk the path along the rolling downs to Farringford at all hours, lighting her way at night using small torches. I imagine their collaborative project bringing the Arthurian legend in Tennyson's Idylls of the Kings alive with photography was a profoundly satisfying experience for them both.
 
In 1875 Julia had to leave Freshwater to return with her husband to their coffee plantations in Ceylon. She took a coffin with her, never intending to return to her beloved Dimbola. It must have been heart-wrenching for Tennyson to see his good friend leave. She died four years later in Ceylon. Tennyson lived until 1892.

I have to admit that I'm having as much fun writing about Ella Durant (Rose) in my second book of the Durant Family Saga as I am about her brother William, the famous architect of Adirondack Great Camps. Why? The myriad of characters available to me to weave into the storyline.

When Ella left to live in England after the death of her father Dr. Thomas C. Durant in 1885, she finally arrived into the literary social scene she had been longing for and never was able to fully realize in New York.

Once she hit London though, she was free to engage with some of the movers and shakers of the time: Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, Rhoda Broughton, Lady Thackeray Ritchie. Although I can't pinpoint where or whom she associated with on a regular basis in London, due to the scant information about Ella (including lack of photos), I did find a number of letters written to her from Lady Anne Thackerary Ritchie in the Syracuse University Library collection.

Anne Ritchie was the daughter of William Makepeace Thackeray, a well known author. Anne, or Anny as her close friends called her, followed in her father's footsteps. She wrote novels, essays in magazines, and was known for rewriting fairy tales such as Cinderella, with a Victorian twist. She spent her summers on the Isle of Wight at Freshwater Bay, a haven for poets - the most famous being Lord Tennyson, philosophers such as Charles Darwin, and photographers, such as Julia Margaret Cameron. She was friends with all of them.

Her numerous connections in the London literary world would have been most useful and intriguing to Ella, who was working on her play about Dante, published in 1889 by a London publishing house.

Anny's letters to Ella reveal that the two were close friends. I believe they met while William and Ella lived in London and the Isle of Wight in the mid-late 1860s. There is a photo of Anny sitting with Ella and her brother William and other family friends I presume at the Isle of Wight sometime in the late 1860s (see below). I surmise that once Ella returned to England, they met frequently for tea and had some mutual acquaintances. She tells Ella in one letter, congratulations on the sale of the family's Adirondack railroad (1889) and advises Ella not to spend her money on all of her friends. I gather Ella inherited the Durant propensity to spend lavishly on entertainment.

I can't find any reference to Ella in a collection of Anny's letters housed at Ohio University. And my query to a scholar of Anne T. Ritchie was a dead end as well. It's so frustrating to be chasing history this way. I catch snippets of clues into the lives of my characters and then hit a brick wall when it comes to details. I'm having fun doing it though. Otherwise I'd have given up by now.