Budleigh Past and Present

Continued from  https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2021/02/stories-from-southlands-hotel-by-iris.html This is the final part of our story about the largely unknown second link between the celebrated Pre-Raphaelite artist and Budleigh Salterton.   Edie Ramage and Millais’ painting ‘Cherry Ripe’  Image credit: Wikipedia As for ‘Cherry Ripe’ herself, Edie Ramage enjoyed a certain fame. A photograph of her as 'Miss Edith Ramage, the Original of the "Cherry Ripe" of Sir John Millais PRA', was published in The Sketch of 22 April 1896. That year, aged 22 and living in Richmond, Surrey, she married a Spaniard, Francisco de Paulo Ossorio Cembrano and gave birth to a daughter, Maria Edith.   Thirteen years older than her, Francisco died in Italy in 1912, and Edith became a widow.    Wealthy art collector Sir Joseph Robinson, who acquired ‘Cherry Ripe’ in 1898, and his London home at 100 Park Lane. Image credit: Wikipedia. The house is still a private h...

      Pictured above is Budleigh resident Iris Ansell next to a celebrated painting by Sir John Everett Millais. As a volunteer at Fairlynch Museum Iris looked after the Costume Department. In this article she recalls more memorable moments from her time as proprietor of Southlands Hotel in Budleigh Salterton. The article is the seventh in a series of her recollections   Image credit: 'Cherry Ripe' Wikipedia  Most local people know that Sir John Everett Millais came to Budleigh in 1870 to paint ‘The Boyhood of Raleigh’. Here Iris writes of the extraordinary and largely unknown story of a second link between Budleigh and the celebrated Pre-Raphaelite artist. I have mixed my own thoughts and research with Iris’s story.   Iris’ previous story ‘The Wrong Emmanuel’ was told  here       Top: Southlands Hotel on Budleigh's Marine Parade was replaced by Marine Court's apartments But here’s her latest story to appear on ‘Budlei...