Highcliffe

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The History of Highcliffe

The history of Highcliffe begins with John, third Earl of Bute, the well-known minister of George III., who was purchaser of the estate. The site of the house he built was said by the present owner of the property, in the evidence he gave before the Royal Commission on Coast Erosion some years ago to be now two miles out to sea. .... The rapid advances of the sea were a great source of trouble to Lord Bute. The falling of the cliff went on at such a rate that the people on the estate dared not tell him of it. The path which ran by the cliffs was constantly disappearing and in order to keep him ignorance of it all the men on the estate were kept at hand while he was at his house to make a new path at the cliff edge in case he should desire to walk that way, so that he might believe that the new path was the old one. Highcliffe was bequeathed to his fourth son, Charles, who found the expense and annoyance ot the landslips so intolerable that he sold the estate to a Mr. Penleaze. "

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