Print of the Month - June 2017
Published by George Baxter in 1850, this print was used as an illustration in 1851 in two pocket books, Suttaby’s Marshall’s Ladies’ Fashionable Repository, and Le Souvenir.
The print was described in Le Souvenir as follows:
“About three miles from Bevis Mount, and in a highly picturesque situation on the left bank of the Southampton Water, stood the ancient Abbey of Netley or Letly.
Only its ruins, covered with ivy and embowered in wood, are now remaining.
According to Tanner’s Notitia it was founded in 1232.
The name of the founder is not exactly known, but Henry III is generally supposed to have raised the pile.
The Monks were of the Cistercian Order.
The entrance of the Abbey or Fountain Court is a square, enclosed by lofty walls.
On the right is the grand Hall leading to the Chapel, whose venerable sides still boast a flight of steps, that range round the building.
The grandeur and elegance of the internal is far superior to the external views.
The Chapel, built in form of a cross, with several recesses communicating with the Abbey, and continued groups of trees, delightfully harmonize and vary the scene.
Such edifices give rise to superstitious ideas.
Dreams are said to have predicted the sudden death of one who meditated the destruction of the pile, and to have pointed out to another a hidden chest of treasure which was buried in the ruins.”
Baxter Process Print, size 4 5/8 x 3 inches. This print is unsigned.
As well as being published in the pocket-book it was also published on Stamped and Red Seal mounts.