Standing high above the horseshoe bend of the River Wye, The Royal enjoys some of the best views of the surrounding countryside. This majestic grade II Georgian Country Hotel, boasts many famous visitors including Queen Victoria and Charles Dickens, who planned his American Biography whilst staying here.

The ghost of Mary Queen of Scots is said to haunt the Elizabethan Talbot Hotel. The oak staircase, and other parts of the building, were brought from the ruins of Fotheringhay Castle. It was down these steps that she walked to her execution. If all this sinister historical association puts you off, you needn't worry, Queen Mary hasn't been sighted for over a week now.

Overlooking Ryde Esplanade and Harbour with views across the Solent, this majestic building is claimed to have been commissioned by Henry VIII to defend the Spithead, Southampton Water and the Solent from the invasion by the Spanish Armada during his daughter’s reign. During World War I the building was used as a wartime hospital and during World War II it was an Army HQ.

"Cowes", reported Mason's Guide to the Isle of Wight, 1876, "the principal station of the Royal Yacht Club... has an air of business as well as pleasure, not to be met within every watering place. There is a commodious landing place at the back of the Fountain Hotel. The Marine Parade... is a delightful and fashionable promenade, commanding a view of the entrance of the harbour, the Roadstead, the Solent, Calshot Castle, Southampton Water, and the opposite shore."

During the 18th and 19th centuries, Rottingdean was a smugglers' village - a time recalled by Rudyard Kipling's "A Smuggler's Song": "If you wake at midnight, and hear horses' feet, Don't go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street... Five and twenty ponies, trotting through the dark - Brandy for the Parson, Baccy for the Clerk." Nowadays the nearest we come to smuggling is snuggling in our sumptuous accommodation.

Luxuriously appointed and sympathetically maintained in the finest traditional manner, with a wealth of old oak and stone chimney pieces of considerable interest to lovers of our English heritage. Be prepared to duck low beams and meander narrow door and hallways. Long hidden features discovered during restoration indicate that, this ancient Royalist owned hostelry dates from before the Civil War. A list of landlords has been proudly retained since 1690 and is displayed in the bar where, traditional ales and fine wines are served from cool cellars and stone vaults.