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and beauties of the whole of Europe, transfer this panegyric to the Isle of Wight, and it becomes equally characteristic, as it comprises within itself all that is pleasing and picturesque in Great Britain. The island, although the largest in the British Channel, is only twenty-three miles in length, measured from the Needles to the Foreland, and about fifteen miles in its extreme breadth, from Rocken End to Cowes Castle. Its circumference has been roughly estimated at sixty miles, and in shape (as may be seen by reference to the accompanying map) it bears some affinity to a turbot, contracting at the two extremities and becoming very narrow towards the west. The population, which has been doubled since 1811, is, according to the last census, nearly 43,000; the number of acres being about 120,000, the greater portion of which is now in a high state of cultivation. The high downs afford excellent pasturage for cattle. An old boast of the peasantry was, that the island yielded seven times as much as its inhabitants could consume, a gasconism that must now, however, be taken with some modification. The breadth of the sea channel that separates the island from the main land on the Hampshire coast varies from six to four miles, whilst at one point, opposite Hurst Castle, there is such a projection as to leave a passage by water of little more than one mile; showing that those most indisposed towards sea voyages have but little to fear. The climate, eminently favourable to vegetation, is peculiarly conducive to health.

Ryde, to which a pleasant voyage of some forty minutes from Portsmouth will conduct us, was some eighty years since a small fishing village, now expanded into a beautiful town, surrounded, like Cowes, with groves, villas, and cottages. From the pier, which is a delightful promenade of nearly half

a-mile in length, finished in 1815, there is a fine view of Portsmouth at six miles distance, of Calshot Castle, of Spithead and its shipping, and, in fine weather, the beautiful spire of Chichester Cathedral. The arrangements for bathing are complete. In the interior of the town there are a few public edifices, built in a complete if not elegant style, such as the Assembly Rooms at the Marine Library, in Union-street, and a new Arcade, recently completed. Inns and hotels are numerous, and very efficiently conducted. At the small theatre of this town, commencing its season in August, Mrs. Jordan took her farewell of the stage. The footway from Ryde to Appley crosses a small and rather marshy meadow, where some years ago the stranger beheld a number of graves, rising above the turf. It was there the bodies cast ashore after the loss of the Royal George, in 1782, were buried. These graves are now obliterated. From Ryde a beautiful walk through Quarr Wood, leads to Quarr Abbey, founded in 1311, by Baldwin, Earl of Devon, for monks of the Cistercian order.

Hence to the Undercliff is the usual course adopted by timelimited tourists, and passing through Brading, Sandown, and Lake, we thus come to the beautiful little village of Shanklin, where a halt is imperative. Shanklin Chine is not only the most beautiful, but, as a natural consequence, is the most frequently visited of all the chines, and is deeply cut through the cliff by an inconsiderable rill. The beach below, from which the best view is to be obtained, affords a delightful walk when the tide is out. About a mile further on occurs another of those curious ravines called Luccombe Chine, for the full appreciation of which we would especially commend the four miles' walk by the landslips, which, by a shelving and tortuous,

but most picturesque pathway, will conduct the pedestrian from Shanklin on to Ventnor.

The rugged and romantic beauties of Bonchurch, one mile before entering Ventnor, mark the commencement, on the eastern side, of that remarkable part of the island called "The Undercliff," where the effects of great and remote landslips show themselves on a prodigious scale. Here a slip o about six miles long, and from a quarter to half a mile in breadth, seems to have settled down and slipped towards the sea, exhibiting a jumble of rocks overturned and brokenmounds of rugged earth, deep hollows, and numerous springs forming falls of water, collecting into pools and hurrying to the Channel. The cliffs vary from 60 to 100 feet in height, and upon these runs the long irregular platform or terrace, which is backed towards the north by a bold abrupt steepa wall of precipitous rock rising from 200 to 300 feet higher. From the similarity of the beds of sandstone, which is precisely the same above as is seen on the broken surface below, it is in every way evident that the sunken tract was formerly a continuation of the higher cliff. M. Simond remarks “the crisis of this part of the Undercliff is evidently of no recent date, and the earth has had time to grow young again; for, contrary to the laws of organised life, inert nature loses with age its original deformity, and is indebted for its beauty and fecundity to its very dissolution." In accounting for the landslips, the same writer thinks it is probable that the numerous springs which now run over the surface of the Undercliff to the sea must formerly have flowed under it, and may have worn wide passages through some soft under strata to the shore, thus unsettling the whole mass.

It would appear that the Undercliff has been formed not by

one grand fall, or subsidence, but by a succession of landslips, which still occasionally occur, on a larger or smaller scale. On this perturbed soil wheat grows exceedingly well, and all other crops flourish freely. The trees that have been planted thrive in a wonderful manner, and, with the luxuriant myrtle bushes, form the most delightful shades, from which cottages and churches, villas and villages, peep forth with the most picturesque effect. This is indeed a favoured nook-an epitome of the regions of the sunny south. After a careful examination of the places on the English coast best suited to persons threatened with consumption, Dr. James Clarke gives the preference to Torquay and the Undercliff, and he seems justly to think that many invalids might find those benefits from climate at home which they seek in distant countries, and too often separated from their friends. "The whole of the Undercliff," he says, "which presents scenery of the greatest beauty, is dry and free from moist or impure exhalations, and is completely sheltered from the north, north-east, north-west, and west winds, by a range of lofty downs or hills of chalk and sandstone, which rise boldly from the upper termination of these terraces, in elevations varying from 400 to 700 feet, leaving the Undercliff open only in a direct line to the south-east, and obliquely only to the south and southwest winds, which rarely blow here with great force." This eminent physician, who hoped that "the Isle of Wight, in addition to its proud title of the Garden of England, might gain that of the British Madeira," would now find his prediction in a fair way of becoming realised, from the number of invalids who have become restored to health by a residence in this highly-favoured spot. The mean morning temperature of the winter months here has been found not less than 45 degrees.

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