The most westerly inhabitable bay, one of the most impressive points of the island, and one of the most comfortable places in the world for the traveller, it is easily reached from Lymington, with the ferry landing us at the delightful little harbour of Yarmouth. From the windows on the bay we look across to the mainland with Hurst Castle in good view by day, the lights of Bournemouth by night, and with clear visibility the white cliffs of Swanage in sight. Many great liners pass this way.

A little way off is Alum Bay with the coloured sands which every child loves and the near view of the Needles, and within an easy walk is Tennyson's Down, the house where he lived, and the church with seven memorials of his family and the grave of his wife. The 19th century church has little for the traveller to see, but the all-red church of St Saviour's, built by the Roman Catholics, is delightful, with its walls of neatly patterned brick, its elegant tower, its projecting baptistery, the five arches along its west front, and an interior with three big and three small bays, half-moon windows in the sanctuary, and other windows shining with the Madonna, the Good Shepherd, and saints. Hereabouts is Weston Manor, with a private chapel built by the theologian William George Ward, near neighbour and great friend of Tennyson, who thought him among the "most worthy of mankind," whose living like he would not find again.

Not far from Totland Bay in the last years of last century the first British wireless transmitting station was set up by Marconi. The first readable signals were exchanged with a steamer at sea on November 6, 1897, and in June of the following year the first paid Marconigram was sent from this station by Lord Kelvin. The station has entirely disappeared, but a granite memorial has been set up to mark the spot on which it stood.

Text courtesy of: Southern Life (UK)