THE ISLE OF WIGHT.*

WI LEN Fanny Price went from her home in Portsmouth to live at Mansfield Park, one of the charges her cousins brought against her was her ignorance. They complained that, think- ing of nothing but the Isle of Wight, she called it the Island, as if there were no other island in the world. It does not appear, from Miss Austen's story, that little Flinty ever crossed the narrow seas that kept her from the blue 1:41s of the opposite coast, although she must often have seen then- in her Sunday walks on the ramparts of Portsmouth. To the presbst writer, fate has been kinder. We love the Isle of Wight—to mow it well is to love it—and in spite of

* frokinson's Smatter Two Maps. London: &I

Guide to the Isle of Wight. Second Edition, with tanford. 1879. 'oaf Fanny's cousins, we make bold to declare that to us it is, and ever shall be, par excellence, the Island. Hence Mr. Jenkinson's capital little manual has afforded us more than one happy half-hour. We must confess to a liking for guide- books generally, and especially for those which treat of a well- known district; and a favourite shelf among our books is set apart for certain cherished maps and guides. Indeed, there is, for most people, a great charm in studying the map of a familiar tract of country, whereon each name brings up a mental picture, and every turn in road or pathway may be followed, recalling to the memory some feature of the landscape, or some half-forgotten incident. Equal interest is found in reading descriptions of places and districts intimately known, and in observing how far the writer's

impressions agree and compare with our own. This, surely, is akin to the feeling a Londoner experiences when, having by pecuniary outlay obtained admission to the theatre, he is delighted by the scenic representation of the streets and bridges of his native city, which he can see any day for nothing, while the passage across the stage of "the gondola of London," as Lothair called the hansom cab, completes his satisfaction. It is realism that gratifies in each case, and the success of a description often depends more on its fidelity than on its beauty.

But we are wandering from the Island, and Mr. Jenkinson. His little book is intended for the use of the tourist, and what it contains of the history of the island is good and sufficient. The geographical information shows accuracy and intelligence, and Mr. Jenkinson is remarkably correct in his directions for follow- ing unfrequented lanes and solitary bridle or foot tracks. Occa- sionally he indulges in the flowery style supposed to be so dear to the heart of the tourist ; for example, we are told that " with the white-crested waves ever advancing and receding at the traveller's feet, and rank vegetation and thick coppices on his

right, he becomes exhilarated, and wends his way with a feeling of health and freedom." Or again, of Steephill Castle, he writes, —"This massive castellated structure has the appearance of a fine baronial residence. Towering amidst a thick cluster of trees, it produces a most imposing effect, and adds a charm to the landscape, when seen from many points of view." To us, Steephill Castle always suggests a pumping-engine house or waterworks, and it is as paltry in conception as it is for a castle ridiculous in position, being entirely commanded from the cliffs hard by. The view from the terrace, by-the- bye, which Mr. Jenkinson says was so highly esteemed by Sir Joseph Paxton, is of exquisite loveliness. Minor faults, however, may be easily forgiven in a writer who is so appreciative of the beauties of the Island. The charm of the Isle of Wight consists chiefly in the variety of its scenery. The whole coast of Kent and Sussex, save a small region east of Hastings, is singularly bare and uninteresting, or, if a fine out- line of cliff is to be found, it is not accompanied by any accessories in the way of foliage and inland beauty. In the Island, this is different. The quiet shores of the Solent Sea are often wooded down to the water's edge, whilst the bolder cliffs of the back of the island are beautifully and delightfully diversified with trees and woods, and crowned by noble downs. It has been called, and with reason, a minia- ture Devonshire, and it has the advantage of being more acces- sible than that county. Yet perchance this accessibility may be regarded as a questionable advantage, tending year by year to the greater influx of a class of visitors who would be just as happy at Ramsgate or Margate.

Those who expect to find grand scenery in the Island will be disappointed. There is little grandeur about it, although nnder certain aspects of wind, and storm, and mist, some points in the Undercliff look really fine ; but for quiet, smiling beauty it is unsurpassed. There is a happy combination of hill and dale, of sand-strewn bay and rocky cliff, of breezy down and shady coppice and furze-clad common, and all "bound in with the triumphant sea." As in Prospero's island, " The air breathes upon us here most sweetly." Sir Walter Scott when visit- ing the Isle of Wight found much to admire, and mentions it as "that beautiful island, which he who once sees never forgets, through whatever part of the world his future path may lead him." Scott had a keen eye for the beauty of nature, and his esti- mate is accordingly the more valuable. The northern shores of the island are pretty, although the district between Newtown and Cowes is the least interesting ; but Wotton and its neighbour- hood are charming, and there are some lovely walks between Hyde and St. Helen's. Before the embankment was thrown across the mouth of Brading Haven, the view from St. Helen's Dover, that curious ridge of blown sand—famous for the variety of its flora, two hundred and fifty species of flowering plants having been found on some fifty acres—which extends between the old church and the mouth of the harbour, was enchanting. At high water the tidal lake lay embosomed between hills, whilst beyond was seen the line of chalk downs running away to Ashey, with its sea-mark, and Brading standing at the head of the lake. Now the haven is dry, and one of the loveliest features of the district is gone. But we are not without hope. Last summer also it was dry, and for some time it remained so ; but the storms of autumn burst the dyke, and it refilled. This has been the result of former attempts to reclaim it. Among the interesting contemporary manuscripts left by Sir John Oglander, of Nunwell, there is a curious account of what he calls the " inning " of 706 acres of Brading Haven by Sir Hugh Myddleton and Sir Bevis Thel- wall, in 1620. "The nature of the ground," he tells us, "after it was inned, was not answerable to what was expected, for almost the moiety of it next the sea was a light running sand, and of little worth. The best of it was down at the farther end next to Brading, my Marsh, and Knight's tenement, in Bembridge." In 1630 the sea broke through the embankment and refilled the haven, as it will probably do again.

Of Brading we could say much. Originally it came into notice through the efforts of the Rev. Leigh Richmond, but it can well afford to stand on its own merits, being in the centre of a district which, although little known, is full of pastoral beauty. Where is a more glorious walk or ride to be found than that from Brading to Arreton, over the downs, with views of unsurpassed loveliness on either side P And quite recently, a Roman villa, said to rival in interest the famous one at Carisbrooke, has been discovered on Moreton Farm, close to Brading. Leigh Richmond, whose admirably simple style was well adapted to the scenes he describes, has written in sweet, artless language of this part of the Island. There is a footpath to be found by following the lane wherein " little Jane's cottage " stands, which skirts the base of the chalk down, and leads away among old .overgrown marl-pits and past clustered beeches. It is of rare beauty, particularly in spring and early summer, when it is shrouded in tender green, and the air is filled with the clamour of the nesting rooks close at hand, among the elms of Nunwell Park. Indeed, nowhere does the Spring touch with more loving hand than in the Isle of Wight, covering the whole country with a perfect carpet of wild flowers. Then within easy walk of Braiding is the quaint peninsula on which Bembridge is situated, and which always seems to us quite separate and different in character from the rest of the Island. Here alone ploughing is still done by ox teams, the animals being harnessed with collars, as in Gloucestershire, and not driven in bows and yokes, which is the Sussex fashion. All the coast from Bembridge to Whitecliff is pretty, but the glory of the district is Whitecliff Bay, one of the most secluded and delicious spots in the whole Island. It is a place to spend a long summer's day, to walk or bathe at will on the smooth, tide- swept sands, or to bask in the sunshine upon the sweet-scented turf which crowns the noble cliff at the southern end of the bay.

To know any tract of country thoroughly, it is needful to do more than visit it for a week or a month in the summer, or to cross it a few times by rail or coach. Its features must be learned by heart, and their changing aspects under different effects of atmosphere, cloud, and sunshine, in each successive season of the year, must be noted and studied. When thus known, the face of the country is as the face of an old and familiar friend, and this sort of knowledge, together with an in- timate topographical acquaintance, is necessary to the thorough enjoyment of the country; whilst, if combined with antiquarian and historical tastes, there is scarcely a district in England that is not full of interest and enjoyment. We have heard it re- marked that the interior of the Island is dull and uninteresting, but this opinion can only arise from ignorance. Dr. Arnold says "I certainly was agreeably surprised rather than disappointed by all the scenery. I admired the interior of the Island, which people affect to sneer at, but which I think is very superior to most of the scenery of common counties ;" and he is well within the truth. People, as a role, go to the Island for the sea, and do not wander far inland. It so happens that the excursion coaches and vehicles follow some of the least interesting of the highways, but if these are left, and the lanes, paths, and bridle- roads followed, the reward will be ample. One of the moat remarkable and pleasing features of the-Island is the wonderful system of ancient bridle-path by which it is intersected. Many of these are strangely hidden away between high banks, fern- covered, and arched by foliage ; and they are deliciously cool and shady in summer time, though in winter but little better than water-courses. There are a number of these old bridle- ways and deep lanes round Brading, Alverston, and Knighton. Others are to be found leading through woods and fields, and emerging on the wind-swept downs, where the turf extends for miles. One very lovely bridle-road is that from Ventnor, over the Downs to Appuldurcombe, and keeping outside the park wall, down a very steep descent, through a romantic bit of country to Godehill. There are others which conduct past solitary cottages, across grassy meadows where streams must be forded, or rejoin the high-road through the yard belonging to some fine old farmhouse. Others we know of leading away through park, or combe, to the range of Downs above Gatcomb, Chillerton, and Shorwell ; and the most con- spicuous, if not the loftiest down in the Island, St. Catherine's, is approachable by a number of rough bat interesting, old tracks. Probably, in the days of smuggling, they were found very useful.

We cannot refrain from a brief mention of the Undercliff, the most beautiful part of the Island ; or of Bonchurch, the loveliest spot in the Undercliff. Here is to be found the old church, famed for the beauty of its churchyard, where John Sterling is buried. The new churchyard, somewhat higher up the hill, and but little visited, is yet more lovely and reposeful. It is the ideal of a quiet resting-place, and here

"Sweeter seems To rest beneath the clover sod That takes the sunshine and the rains,"

—than in any other churchyard we know of. The Undercliff has been inhabited from very early times. On the little farm of Wolverton, itself a Saxon name, there is a rained farmhouse of the thirteenth century. Strangely enough, a second farm- house of the Tudor period stands in the same garden ; and a third, of more modern build, across the courtyard. In the neighbouring sea-cliff more than one " kitchen-midden " has been found. The coast is here indented with a number of small rocky bays, in which many a cargo of contraband goods has been landed, and even now the Isle of Wight is not altogether free from the imputation of smuggling. So lately as 1875 the constant presence of a Revenue cutter was deemed necessary ; and in 1876, if we remember rightly, a man was unfortunately shot dead near the Needles on board a pilot or fishing-boat. At this time many stories were current as to the seizure of smuggled goods in the Undercliff and at Niton, or of the successful outwitting of the Revenue officers ; this, among others :—A farming man, going one morning to milk some cows in a meadow near the sea, found a keg of spirits on the shore. This he managed to open, and poured the con- tents into his milk-pail, and then, filling up tEe keg with sea- water, he sent it as far as possible out to sea. Having concealed his spoil for future removal, he proceeded to call the Coast- guards' attention to the floating keg, at the same time claiming the reward for the discovery of contraband goods. How .he would have accounted for the unusual contents of his milk-pail, had it been detected, it is difficult to say ; but the following anecdote may suggest his possible explanation :—In a little town not far from the New Forest lives a dairyman, whose premises are in suggestive proximity to the river, and on one occasion, in the milk he supplied to a friend of our own, a minnow was found. This interesting lacto-piscatorial discovery being made known to the cowkeeper's wife, she exclaimed, "The cow must have swallowed 'un ! Poor thing !"

Of course, Mr. Jenkinson does not neglect Carisbrooke and its castle. It is melancholy to see the condition of the por- tion called " the King's apartments." If these rooms, connected with one of the most interesting periods of English history, are not worth preserving, the sooner the roof and floors fall in the better. They may then become ivy-clad and moss-grcwn.

present, they are in a disgraceful state of hideous disfigure- ment; and this is the less excusable, unless it is wished flat they should perish, as many hundreds of pounds mawbe taken

yearly in entrance-money. The ordinary tour", however, is

.th its wheel and more entertained by the celebrated well, ,. donkey, than by any historical assock"on. This wheel is commonly supposed to be unique. not generally known zyls that there is a much finer and older wheel at a farmstead not far from the Devil's Dyke, within half-a-dozen miles of Brighton.

We could have written of picturesque Shorwell, and of the lonely downs, Lemerston, Mottestone, and Afton, which lie between it and Freshwater Gate ; or of the lofty cliffs of the High Down, at whose base the wrinkled sea crawls with un- ceasing murmur, and whence the grand expanse of ocean seems to stretch away into infinity. Something might be said, too, of quaint little Yarmouth, and its old fort, or of the secluded villages of Shalfleet and Calbourne ; but our limits are more than reached, and we must leave this nice little book, which will be found an excellent guide to any one who wishes thoroughly to explore the beauties of the Island.