Culture Of The Isle Of Wight
The Isle of Wight maintains a culture close to, but distinct from, that of the south of England due to its nature as an offshore island. With a high proportion of the present-day population being 'overners', with a few notable exceptions it has more often formed the backdrop for cultural events of wider significance, rather than Island-specific heritage.
The Island has inspired many creative works in history. Local people often seek to defend their real or perceived culture, and local politics is often dictated by a desire to preserve the traditions and habits of the Island.
The first creative flowering of the Isle of Wight occurred during the reign of Queen Victoria under whose patronage the island became a fashionable destination for the Victorian gentry.
Read more about Culture Of The Isle Of Wight: Literature, Painting, Photography, Language and Dialect, Local Media, Sport, Major Events, Marmotinto, Music, Views of The Island, Paganism, Morris Dancing
Famous quotes containing the words culture, isle and/or wight:
“A culture may be conceived as a network of beliefs and purposes in which any string in the net pulls and is pulled by the others, thus perpetually changing the configuration of the whole. If the cultural element called morals takes on a new shape, we must ask what other strings have pulled it out of line. It cannot be one solitary string, nor even the strings nearby, for the network is three-dimensional at least.”
—Jacques Barzun (b. 1907)
“It is so rare to meet with a man outdoors who cherishes a worthy thought in his mind, which is independent of the labor of his hands. Behind every man’s busy-ness there should be a level of undisturbed serenity and industry, as within the reef encircling a coral isle there is always an expanse of still water, where the depositions are going on which will finally raise it above the surface.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Then think I thus: sith such repair,
So long time war of valiant men,
Was all to win a lady fair,
Shall I not learn to suffer then,
And think my life well spent to be,
Serving a worthier wight than she?”
—Henry Howard, Earl Of Surrey (1517?–1547)