By Isle of Wight Observer
We found this look at Ryde, from the Isle of Wight Observer published on 14th July 1888, quite amusing – and hope you agree.
RESPECTABLE RYDE. – We print elsewhere an article which, for its candour and out-spokenness, is worthy of some little attention. The writer appears to have come to the town during the exceedingly blustery, disagreeable days of the late cold spell, and seeing few promenaders upon our Pier, jumped to the conclusion it was always deserted, and that the lack of people was due to the fact that Ryde had got dull and stupid. He admits that every prospect pleases, but he says Ryde is too quiet. “Twenty years ago we were all virtue; now we are all vice; respectability has killed Ryde.” So Ryde in its old age is to throw off the mantle of respectability and kick up her heels as a naughty, nice place. Well, without exactly bowing the knee to Bad, we must say Ryde’s respectability has often degenerated into the most ridiculous stiffness and starchiness, and that everyone who comes here laughs at the cliqueishness of the inhabitants. “What have they got to be so uppish about?” said a gentleman in our hearing the other day, “But it is the same with all; it begins at twopence half-penny and ends at half-a-crown.” We believe the feeling has done a great deal of harm for Ryde in these later democratic days, and that its inhabitants do not get half as much enjoyment out of life as they might so if they were a little more companionable. Besides, those who are made to perceive this sort of thing are not at all impressed by it. They simply exclaim “What a frumpy place!” and seek a more genial town.