The Romance of Netley
Overgrown and abandoned, the abbey was not forgotten. In the 18th century, many Romantic writers, artists and poets, in search of the romantic and the picturesque, were attracted to the atmospheric ruins.
Sir William Paulet’s mansion was occupied until 1704, when the owner sold it for building materials. The abbey was only saved when a demolition worker was killed, causing work to cease.
As the ‘Romantic Movement’ grew in strength, many authors and artists visited the abbey to find inspiration. Set amongst the wild, wooded slopes above Southampton Water, overgrown Netley appeared to be the perfect medieval ruin.
John Constable came to paint here, and writers such as Thomas Gray enthused about the abbey. It is reported that Jane Austen visited Netley, finding inspiration for her novel Northanger Abbey (published 1817).
In the 1840s, the abbey became a popular place for local people to come for tea, dancing and music. Some visitors complained that the romantic atmosphere was ruined by ‘the popping of ginger beer’.
Later, changing attitudes led the owner to clear the vegetation and debris from the ruins. All traces of the later Tudor alterations were removed, and the abbey ruins were returned to their ‘pristine elegance’.
“The ruins are vast, and retain fragments of beautiful fretted roofs pendent in the air, with all variety of Gothic patterns of windows wrapped round and round with ivy … they are not the ruins of Netley, but of Paradise. - Oh! the purple abbots, what a spot had they chosen to slumber in!”
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