Shakespreare Memorial, Blackgang
By the side of the old road from Blackgang to Niton stood the Shakespeare Memorial and Fountain, built in 1864[1] to commemorate the tercentenary of the birth of William Shakespeare by Thomas Letts who lived at South View House[2]. Thomas Letts (1803 – 1873) was the English stationer and printer who popularised the diary.
The memorial was in the form of a Doric temple which stood above the road. Below the temple was a plaque which bore the inscription:
| He sits alone like a descended god He hath a kind of honour sets him off More than a mortal seeming. (Cymbeline. Act 1. Scene 7.) |
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At the roadside was the spout of the fountain, around which was the inscription:
| "The water nectar and the rocks of pure gold" (Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act 2, Scene 4.) |
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After the landslip in July 1928, the old road became impassable and since then further land movements have made the memorial and fountain increasingly inaccessible. Today it is lost to all but the very adventurous (foolish?)
