When Charles Dickens visited the Isle of Wight in July of 1849 he had already begun his great autobiographical novel “David Copperfield”. He was shown over Winterbourne and instantly fell in love with the house and gardens.

In a letter that night to his wife he wrote:

Dickens delighted in the peace and happiness he found at Winterbourne. He made it a rule that he be “invisible” until 2pm every day when he worked on his novel in one of the first floor rooms overlooking the gardens and out to sea.

The rest of the day was occupied with a hectic social calendar and he often entertained many of his literary friends - Thackeray, Carlyle, Tennyson and Mark Lemmon.

Even his young sons were often found playing with the youthful Algernon Swinburne, a neighbour from “East Dene”, whose poet genius was soon to conquer England.