THE

ISLE OF WIGHT

BY

J. REDDING WARE.

Tht- Photographic Illustrations by RUSSELL SEDGFIELD AND FRANK M. GOOD.

SECOND EDITION.

PROVOST & CO.,

36, HENRIETTA STREET. COVENT GARDEN. 1871.

UNWIN BKOTHERS. PRINTERS, BUCKI.ERSBURY, I.OXnON. K.C.

LONTENTS.

87|

PAGE

Introduction ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... i

Geology of the Ifle ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 4

Bird's-eye View and General Description ... ... .,. ... ... u

Political Hiftory ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 21

The Hiftory from the date of Annexation to England ... ... ... ... 44

Ryde 66

Brading ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 82

Quarr Abbey ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 91

Eaft and Weft Cowes 96

Ofborne ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 102

Newport... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 107

Shanklin ... ... ' ..'. ... ... ... ... ... ... 122

Luccombe Chine ..'. ... ' ... ... ... ... ... ... 128

The Uridercliff ... ... ... ... 129

Bonchurch ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 133

Ventnor ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 137

St. Lawrence ... ... ... ... ' ... ... ... ... ... 140

Blackgang Chine ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 144

Carifbrook and its Caftle ... ... ... ... 151

Environs of Carifbrook, &c .. ... ... ... ... ... ... 166

Shorwell 169

Frefhwater Bay ... 171

ScratchelPs Bay ... ... 175

Yarmouth ... ... ... ... ... ... .. 179

1ST OF rHOTOGRAPHS.

Eroding The Needles Godjhlll ... ...

Rydt

Cowes ... ..

OJborne ......

Shanklin Chine ShanUin Church Boncburch . .. Ventnor ...

Blackgang Chine .. Carijbrook Cajile SAorioell ... ..

Freftrwater Bay Scratched* Bay

By RUSSELL SEDGFIELD ...... Frontifpiece

PAGE

„ FRANK M. GOOD ............ 12

... „ RUSSELL SEDGFIELD ... ... ... 63

„ „ ... ............ 66

... From a Painting ... ... ... ... 97

By RUSSELL SEDGFIELD ... ... ... ... 103

„ „ ............ . I"

„ ,, ... ... ... ... 125

... „ „ ... ... ... ... 133

„ „ ... ... .. 1 37

... „ FRANK M. Goon ... ... ... 144

„ RUSSELL SEDGFIELD ... ... ... 151

... ,, ,, ... ... ... ... 17°

>, »» ... ... ... ... 171

„ FRANK M. GOOD ......... 175

Introdu&ion.

HE Ifle of Wight is the paradife of bees, flowers, and invalids. Almoft throughout the year there are bloflbms for the buzzing bees, who are awake and careering through the air long after their Engliih brethren have said " good-night " to the year and have hived themfelves accordingly. Even into December, that ufually chilly month (though perhaps, in its early days only), invalids have been known to take conftitutionals accompanied by para- sols and umbrellas, thefe conftitutionals being taken in the moft nooky parts of fuch a natural winter-garden as the unequaled Ventnor. The iflanders are perfectly aware of the rarity, the exceptional quality of their climate, and indeed they do not take the need- lefs trouble to praife it very much. The ifland fpeaks for itfelf. Storms are pofitively rare in the Isle of Wight.

But while the iflanders are prone to attribute this fatisfa&ory ftate of meteorological things to something very much in the

B

2 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

nature of fpecial provifion, the lefs enthufiaftic ftranger is prompted to queftion fcience upon this point, only, however, to afcertain that fcience has no reply whatever to make.

But little attention has been given to the confideration of this fubjedr,, and it muft be left to future phyfical geographers and meteorologifts to analyfe the queftion.

The changes in pafling round the Ifle of Wight are moft infinite. To the north the fliores are generally low and in- clined towards the main land, for it is here the greedy fea fwept into the land, and cut away the ifland from England. Here, on the north, between Hampfhire and the ifle the fea has fapped and melted away the land in fvveet fummer weather ; here in winter the high and feething waters have bitten out huge titanic mouthfuls, sucking, undermining, rending. The fjft, marfhy land has yielded without any refiftance beyond its weight and its extent. From the time when the fea at laft feparated the land, and fwept round it, another ifland, the water has never ceafed to abforb the weak ftrata lying along the north fhore. As you walk you can fee the land yielding. Hark ! a fplafli, although the fea is only whifpering to the faint breeze, and not a human found comes near you. It is a piece of the foil yielded to its implacable enemy — the fea ; and if you watch, you will mark how the almoft motionlefs water will melt away and flowly level it.

Examine well the yielding land upon the north of the ifland. Mark the fiffures in the foft earth. Here is a wild rofe grow- ing half on one fide of a crack, half on the other. The flow fummer fea has undermined the ground it grew upon, and the roots are feparating. A few days, and with another foft plunge and fplafh, half the wild rofe bufli will be engulfed. It will be the turn of the other half this year, or the year that is to come.

INTRODUCTION. 3

Look away a yard over the water. There you fee a cake of earth, with this year's leaves flill flouriming, albeit the mother- earth has been fwept to fea. How long will the leaves twitter in the breeze? If the waves rife angrily, the tiny bloflbming ifland will be fwept away to-night ; if not to-night, to-morrow.

Look farther, and you will fee laft year's branches below the water, Hill clinging to the fubmerged ground. The branches now bear other fruit than blackberries, hips, and haws ; amongft them floats other life than gnat and midge. Tiny little mollufcs have fixed upon the twigs ; they are the young fry of the fruttl deP mare, of the fea-fruit that men gather in nets. And in place of the midges you may mark tiny atoms of life floating in and out, and playing at that ceafelefs game of catch-catch which the summer flies keep up through all the hours of the day.

There is the tiny world below the water, drawing the lines of its univerfe at high water-mark ; and at a diftance fo narrow that it evades meafurement. On the very furface of the water itfelf begins the life of the air. And between the two is the land, ceafelefsly yielding to the unceafing fea, and after ferving the life of the air through ages — a moment, and yielding to the water, it becomes the immediate home of new ihapes of life.

But on the fouth fide of the ifle the land has warred with the water, and difputed every grain of chalk or ftone. On the north, the angry lea fweeps over the land, ravening and tearing it away. On the fouth, the high proud cliffs drive back the imperious water, which, repelled, will rife in its frothing rage high, it is faid, as any lighthoufe there.

The fea can wait. The cliffs refift, but they muft yield in immenfe lengths of time. For months, for years, the waters may boil round the Needle rocks, and only a whitened water

4 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

(hall be the refult, as though the Tea had turned pale with rage at its ineffectual attacks ; when, fuddenly, a mighty wave beats at the rock, and over it heels, the water leaping and screaming athwart it like a thing of life. Then apparently, the waters are appeafed. Information of the change in the afpe& of the Needles is fent up to the Trinity Houfe ; sailors grow accus- tomed to their new form ; and the old fliape is almoft forgotten, only to be recalled when again the fea claims another rock.

Within the memory of many of the iflanders the afpe£t of the Needles has changed more than once.

Some day, in a mighty ftorm, fuch as appears to rage only once in the courfe of centuries, the whole line of rocks called the Needles will be fwept away, the cliffs will fall, woods will be engulfed, and a new view of the ifland will be created.

The fea is never ftill, never fatiated, and though the land refifts, it is ever yielding bit by bit.

How long fliall it be before the fea will fwallow the cliffs which ftill defy it ? Many thoufands of years may pafs before the cliff above Scratchell's Bay falls, but the cave now being fcooped into the chalk tells how, in time to come, down muft fall that mighty rock.

Mantell, in his charming book devoted to the geology of the Ifle of Wight, has given feveral pages to an analyfis of the geology from Ryde to Alum Bay — that greateft wonder of the Ifle. He fays, " The fteam-packets from Ryde to Yarmouth pafs fufficiently near the northern more of the ifland to afford a general view of the outcrop of the ftrata in the cliffs and bays formed by the inroads of the fea, and at the mouths of the rivers and eftuaries. The coaft from Ryde to Cowes exhibits little or no feature of geologic intereft. Here and there flips.

THE GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE. 5

or fubfidences in the low cliffs have expofed beds of calcareous marl and frefh-water limeftone, covered by alluvial clay and loam, along the fea-bounds of Her Majefty's eftate at Ofborne, and of the grounds of Norris Caftle. Along the fhore, at low water, numerous foffils and fhells, which have been warned up, are very often to be met with.

" On the north fide of Garnet Bay, about two miles weft of Cowes, the cliffs are compofed of alternating beds of clay and limeftone, the latter abounding in frefti-water fhells. In Thorley Bay fimilar ftrataare obferved, with layers of blue clay and fand, containing marine fhells. In fevsral localities along the whole north fhore of the ifle, fluvio-marine clays appear on the fides of the floping banks, but the exa<5l ftratigraphical pofition of thefe beds is concealed by vegetation. They are probably the equivalents of the ftrata at the northern end of Whitecliff Bay, which contain an intermixture of marine and fluviatile fhells.

" Beyond Newtown Bay are Hampftead Cliffs, about nine miles eaft of Yarmouth, confifting of calcareous marls, with the ufual fluviatile fhells in great abundance.

" Fading Yarmouth, and reaching the fhore oppofite Hurft Caftle, we enter Colwell Bay, where the cliffs exhibit an alter- nation of marine and frefh-water ftrata. In the fiflure called Bramble Chine a thick bed of oyfter fhells is expofed, apparently in its original ftate, the valves being in contact with each other as when the mollufcs were living. This appears to be the equivalent of the oyfter-bed obfervable in Whitecliff Bay. Many beautiful foffil fhells may be collected in this locality. In Totland, or Tolland's Bay — the latter title being a corruption — fimilar fands, clays, and marls form the cliffs. Thence we reach Alum Bay."

To our thinking, the wonderful parti-coloured fand and

O THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

clay cliffs, in vertical ftrata, of Alum Bay form the moO: wondrous and beautiful geological puzzle that is to be found in the world of geology. No geologift has attempted to account for the ever-varying changes in colour of the fand-layers, fome of which are fo thin that they appear to be the work of only a few minutes' depofit.

Of the ftriped Alum Bay cliffs — from an artiftic point of view — it can only be faid that they are fimply beyond praife. Their appearance has been compared to a filk of banded colours. The harmony and variety of their tones, their combined beauty, their foft fhadows, their interminable changes grow upon you much after the fafhion of one of Turner's more recondite pictures. Then again, the play of light and (hade upon the broken furface multiplies the tints a thoufand fold. There is no geologic example in the whole world fimilar to this ftriped cliff phenomenon in Alum Bay, of the rationale of which all geologifts appear to be in abfolute ignorance, fmce they make no attempt to explain the puzzle. Jt is a beautiful myftery.

And another flrange thing about thefe varied fands is this, that as they mix at the bottom of the glorious cliff, they mingle into the ordinary tone of fea-fand, and refemble that here found upon the beach, and from which fo good a glafs is made.

The courfe of thefe parti-coloured fands may be followed as far as Fiefhwater, where, haply digging a hole in a hedge, a ftream of rofe-coloured fand (hall flow forth as though there were magic in it.

Mantell grows enthufiaftic in describing Alum Bay: — " The panorama prefented by the fwecp of Alum Bay is quite unequalled throughout the ifland, and probably is not, for equal peculiarity and beauty, furpaffed by any ftretch of coaft line in the United Kingdom."

THE GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE. J

Sir Henry Englefield, an amateur geologift, defcribes the fpot in the following language : — " The fcenery of this Bay is very fuperior to that of any other part of the ifland. The chalk forms an unbroken face everywhere, nearly per- pendicular, in fome parts moft formidably projecting, and the tendered ftains of ochrous yellow and greenifh moift vege- tation vary without breaking its fublime uniformity. This vaft wall extends nearly a quarter of a mile, is more than four hundred feet in height, and terminates by a thin projection with a bold broken outline. And the wedge-fhaped Needle Rocks, rifing out of the blue waters, continue the cliff in idea beyond its prefent boundary, giving an awful impreflion of the ftormy ages which have gradually devoured its enormous mafs. The pearly hue of the chalk under certain conditions of the atmofphere and light is beyond defcription by words, and probably out of the power of the pencil to pourtray. The magical repofe of this fide of the bay is wonderfully contrafted by the torn forms and vivid colouring of the cliffs on the oppofire fide. Thefe do not, as at Whitecliff, prefent rounded headlands clothed with turf and fhrubs, but offer a feries of points of a fcalloped form, and which are often fhurp and pinnacled. Deep, rugged chafms divide the ftrata in many places, and not a trace of vegetation appears in any part; all is wild ruin. The tints of the cliffs are fo brght and varied that they have not the aspeA of anything natural. Deep purplifh red, dufky blue, bright ochreous yellow, grey nearly approaching to white, and abfolute black, fucceed each other as clearly defined as the ftripes in filk; while, after rains, the fun, which, in fummer, from about noon to his fetting, increaf- ingly illuminates them, gives a brilliancy to fome of thefe ftrata nearly as refplendent as the lights on real filk. Small vcflels often lie in this bay for the purpofe of loading chalk and

O THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

fand, and they ferve admirably to (how the majeftic fize of the cliffs, under whofe fhade they lie diminilhed almoft to nothing."

Continuing his analyfis of the geology of the coaft line at and about Alum Bay, Mantell says : — " Although the uncon- formable pofition and diflocated ftrata at Headon Hill appear at firft fight to prefent little correfpondence with the nearly horizontal frefh-water depofits at Whitecliff Bay, and the richly coloured and variegated ftripes of fands and clays on the vertical cliffs of Alum Bay, ftill lefs to refemble the dull, ochreous marine beds expofed in the breaks of the turf-covered flopes of that locality, yet a careful examination will foon convince the obferver that the geological characters of this nnrth-weftern fedion of the eocene ftrata agree in every effential feature with thofe which fhould engage his attention at the eaftern extremity of the ifland, The variegated and deeply-tinted fands, marls, arid clays, which impart fo remarkable and brilliant an afpedl to the cliff, are between feven arid eight hundred feet high. The attenuations and variety of the vertical feams or layers are almoft innumerable. The fands are of every fhade, of red, yellow, green, and grey. Some are white, and others almoft black. The clays are equally diverfified."

Mr. Webfter, another hiflorian of the ifle, remarks : — u The variety of the vertical layers is endlefs, and may be com- pared to the ftripes of a parti-coloured tulip. On cutting down pieces of the cliff, it is aftonifhing to fee the brightnefs of the colours and the delicacy and thinnefs of the feveral layers of the white and red fand, fhale and white fand, yellow clay and white and red fand, and indeed almoft every imaginable com- bination of thefe materials. In the midft of this feries there are vertical layers of pebbles, and one thick ftratum, and many feams of lignite."

THE GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE. 9

This lignite, it appears to us, points to coal, which has been found and worked on the ifland, but to an unprofitable con- clufion. Alum Bay takes its name, it is ufually faid, from alum having been found on the beach. However this may be, its coloured fands are certainly the wonder of the Ifle of Wight. Seen from the water at funfet, their wealth of colour, of mingled light and fliadow, is quite beyond any attempt at defcription.

And there is another peculiarity to be noticed at Alum Bay, a peculiar pearlinefs of the chalk cliffs which furround the bay — this phenomenon being feen at certain times and feafons ; indeed, at all times there is a fingular chiarofcuro to be obferved in connexion with them. Mantell ( " Geological Excurfions round the IJJe of Wight"] — and his work is the moft charming book upon geology which has yet been written — quitting the coaft line, and turning inland says, fpeaking of the towering downs : — "We fee two parallel fweeps of huge hills, ftretching eaft and weft along the whole length of the fea-bound landfcape. The northern range claims only moderate height, and flopes gradually to the fhore, while it exhibits that fmoothened, rounded, circle-cutting-circle outline, which at once tells the geologift, whatever the embroidery fuch a landfcape may have upon it, foreft, grafs, corn, or heather, that the formation is pure white chalk. The firft line of hills confifts," fays our author, " of frefh- water ftrata, which are fuper-impofed on the eocene marine depofits. The fouthern range of hills claims the greater altitude, the greater length ; each point feems to be ftretching higher than its neighbour, and this rivalry may be marked fairly along the whole length of the ifland, from the eaft promontory of Culver Cliffs to the extreme weftern Needles."

Of the geological formation of the fouthern hills, Mr,

c

IO THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

Mantell fays: — uThe fouthern divifion is almoft entirely compofed of the different members of the cretaceous fyftem. The white chalk forms a range of domes from the eaftern to the weftern extremity, and is flanked on the fouth by the lower beds of this formation. Thefe are fucceeded by another group of chalk hills that expands into a broad and lofty promontory, in fbme parts between eight hundred and nine hundred feet high, headed by St. Catherine's, Shanklin, and Boniface Downs. On the fouthern efcarpment of this chain the upper depofits of the cretaceous fyftem reappear, and fallen maffes of thefe rocks form the irregular line of terraces which conftitute the UnderclifF. The downs on the fouthern coaft are feparated from thofe inland by an anticlinal axis, which extends through this part of the ifland, and is produced by the upheaval of the fire-ftone, gault, and green fand. The promontory of the Undercliff is flanked both on the eaft and weft by extenfive bays, which have been excavated in the clay and fands of the Wealden and inferior cretaceous depofits by the long-continued fapping of the fea. The Wealden occupies an inconfiderable extent of furface; but in Sandown Bay on the eaft, and in Brixton, Brook, and Compton Bays on the weft, the cliffs, which are formed of the upper clays and fands of this formation, are expofed to unremitting deftrudlion from the action of the waves. The fea-more is therefore ftrewn with the detritus of thefe fluviatile ftrata, and the fhingle contains innumerable water-worn fragments of the bones of reptiles and other organic remains."

The geology of the Ifle of Wight is by no means wanting in majefty. A ftudent who defires to make himfelf mafter of this fubjecl: will find Mantell an invaluable guide.

A Bird's-eye View and General Defcription of the Ifle.

T is from the higheft of the downs in the Ifle of Wight that a bird's-eye view of the ifle is obtained. Thefe downs or hill ranges vary from four hundred to feven hundred feet in height, while one line of hills runs through the ifland u like a back-bone." It is this back- bone which offers, when it is furmounted, as glorious a view as any in the whole fouth of England. Standing on Arreton Down, and looking north-weft, the eyes mark on one fide the peaceful palace of Her Majefty, on the other the remains of the warlike old caftle of Cariibrook, with its now ufelefs loop-holes, and its ramparts covered by nature with that type of civilization — ivy, which creeps over old caftle and abbey, an ever frefh fermon upon the vanity of overftrained power. Men have built to control and defy. Control has been loft, and defiance is in the duft, and here is the ivy curtaining the proud ftone-work.

12 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

Below Carifbrook Caftle is the metropolis, as we fuppofe it muft be called, Newport; and lying above it the inevitable prifon, backed by the heavy folid depths of Parkhurft Foreft. Away, on the horizon, may be feen the downs above the Needles, high and towering, and Teeming, when feen from the fhell of fome fmall boat a mile or two at fea, veritable mountains. Of thefe rocks — the Land's End of the Ifle of Wight — the Rev. W. L. Bowles has fung : —

"On thefe white cliffs, that, calm above the flood, Uplift their fliadowing heads, and, at their feet, Scarce hear the furge that has for ages beat,

Here many a lonely wanderer has flood;

And, whilft the lifted murmur met his ear, And o'er the diftant billows the ftill eve Sailed flow, has thought of all his heart muft leave

To-morrow j of the friends he loved moft dear j

Of focial icenes, from which he wept to part, But if, like me, he knew how fruitlefs all The thoughts that would full fain the paft recall,

Soon would he quell the rifings of his heart,

And brave the wild winds and unhearing tide,

The world his country, and his God his guide."

A writer, referring to the Needles, very juftly says : — 41 From the chalky nature of this remarkable group of rocks, and of the coaft of the ifland from which they have been detached, continual changes are taking place in their form and difpofition. In fome places the fea has eaten through them, and formed large and irregular archways ; in others, it has fo wafhed away their fides, that they look rather like walls than folid rocks; while deep caverns have been formed in the cliffs which fall in from time to time, and gradually diminifti the ifland in that direction."

Old records of Wight, by the way, teem with ftatements of the abundance of wild fowl in this part of the ifle.

The Needles are now as unlike needles as they well can be,

A BIRDS-EYE VIEW, ETC. 13

for they are almoft as broad at their fummits as their bafes. But an engraving made even fo late as 1832-1840, gives the whole range a diftindtly pointed chara&sr.

Let us fweep round towards the balmy fouth, and we (hall fee the cheery- looking Frefhwater Bay, made claffic by the refidence of Tennyfon on the hill above, and charming in itself by the bounty of nature. Now bring the eyes along the coaft line of chines, themfelves a marvel of contraftive ftudy, and — you mark that point! — the Under-cliff, which like a guardian angel, hides white-houfed and parapet-like Ventnor from the view. But you may mark the thin white fmoke rifing in the air. Still drift along the coaft line : your eyes are now glancing over the beautiful valley of the ifland — the fruitful valley, wherein neftles Arreton, and where is harvefted more than the iflanders can consume.

Elizabeth Wallbridge, a pious peafant girl, whofe hi (lory has been fimply and feelingly narrated by the Rev. Legh Richmond, in a fmall volume entitled " The Dairyman's Daughter," was born in Arreton, and lies interred in the churchyard.

The church was one of thofe given to the Abbey of Lyra, by William Fitz-William ; and, in the reign of Henry I., when Baldwin de Redvers endowed the Abbey of Quarr, he either gave the manor of Arreton, or procured it for his new founda- tion, to which it belonged till the abbey was diflblved. The church, which is dedicated to St. George, is an ancient edifice, confifting of a nave and chancel, with a fouth aifle. In the aifle, is an ancient plate of brafs, on which is the effigy of a man in armour, with his feet on a lion ; and underneath is this infcription : —

tf p f»iric&: unfccr tfcis 0rauc, Battles: fjt£ Motile <iBo& saue: TLonge tpmc stttuait) : of tfce f*(e of C?aue mo? on from : 4&o& ful of

14 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

There are alfo fome handfome monuments to the Holmes family; that to Sir Leonard Worsley Holmes is peculiarly worthy of attention; the fculptor, Mr. Hafkoll, was a native of the ifland.

Arreton Farm-houfe is a good fpecimen of the Jacobean domeftic architecture.

From Arreton Down may be enjoyed a profpe£t of wonder- ful beauty, — hamlets fhining among leafy copfes, venerable manor-houfes and ancient farmfteads, meadows and uplands, ftreams, groves, and fhadowy combes. On its fummit a few years ago, two confiderable tumuli^ or barrows were opened, and many interefting relics exhumed. St. George's Down is quite claffic ground. Here, in the days of the Earl of South- ampton (1607-9), was a famous bowling green, " railed in" at the coft of the gentry of the ifland, and a fort of fummer- houfe, maintained in a bountiful fafhion. " I have feen," fays Sir John Oglander, u with my Lord of Southampton at St. George's Down, at bowls, some thirty or forty knights and gentlemen, where our meeting was then twice every week, Tuefdays and Thurfdays; and we had an ordinary there, and card-tables." Wyndham fays, " This is the moft centric elevation of the ifland. It is unconnected with any other hills, and the plain upon its top may be a mile in length. The views from it are not fo exclufive as thofe from the higher hills, though they are fufficiemly varied to arreft, occasionally, the progrefs of a pafTenger, and, particularly, on the fpot where the whole length of the Newport river difclofes itfelf, from that low town even to the harbour and ftreets of Cowes."

Now let us return to our bird's-eye view.

To your left is Brading Harbour, honoured by the memory of noble Sir Hugh Myddleton, who tried fo bravely to give London good water. And now another turn will bring Ryde

A BIRD S-EYE VIEW, ETC. 15

and Cowes into view. And thus in a few fentences, we have carried you round the ifland, and given you a bird's-eye view from one of its higheft points. And thus having, after a manner, introduced you to the Ifle of Wight, you will per- mit us to come down from our ftand-point.

The principal river,and it is not a very wide one,is the Medina, from the Latin Medius it is faid. This river very fairly divides the ifland into halves, to which have been given the diftin6tive titles, east and weft Medina. But we may add that when the guide- books defcribe the Medina as dividing the ifland into halves, it muft not thereupon be fuppofed that there are two Ifles of Wight. In facl: the river only cleaves the ifland at its wideft part one third of its width. However, if a line be taken fouth from the rife of the Medina, and in continuation of the direction of the river, which flows due north, it will certainly very fairly make the divifion roughly defcribed to be achieved by the one water-way to which the iflanders have the hardi- hood to apply the term river. To ba fure there is the eaftern Yar, flowing into the almoft-lake called Brading Harbour, and the weftern Yar (for it is a peculiarity of the ifland that what- ever place there is on the weftern fide is duplicated in name on the eaftern, of courfe with the fubftitution of eaftern for weftern) which flows into the Solent at Yarmouth. In neither cafe can the ftranger quite tell where the river is, and when he has found it he difcovers that, a lateral brook or two apart, he has arrived at the fource. But the rational tourift cannot expect to find Miflburies and Mifliflippis in an ifland which is only fixty miles in circumference.

The weftern Yar forms Frefliwater into a peninfula. In fait, the Isle of Wight is quite a primitive leflbn in phyfical geography, while at the fame time the hiftory of its political geography is abforbing in intereft.

l6 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

But though the ifland is charming in itfelf, it is looked upon with gravity by all patting mariners. Bembridge Point, the Foreland, Dunnofe, Eaft End, Rocken End, St. Catherine Point, Atherfield Point, Brook Point, the Needles, and Headon Hill — thefe are words aflbciated with fearful wrecks and hair-breadth efcapes, to the lift of which every winter throws its fearful contribution.

Perhaps the moft remarkable and diftindive landfcape features of the ifle are the chines, a difagreeable term, but one pre-eminently forcible. There has been fo much wordy con- teft over the derivation of this defignation, that it is only wifely judicious to maintain filence upon the point. Charles Knight pafles by the queftion to describe the natural objecl: itfelf. That lucid writer fays, "The chines are deep fiffures which have been cut in the cliffs by the adlion of a ftreamlet falling over the fummit. All of them have the fame general features. There is a wide opening feaward which contracts inland with more or lefs rapidity, according to the hardnefs of the rock, the greater or lefs quantity of water which ordinarily falls over, or other circumftances. In fome cafes the ravine reaches for nearly a mile inland, and is loft at length in the ordinary bed of the brook ; in others, it terminates abruptly in a waterfall. Although the ftream muft in every inftance be regarded as the chief agent in cutting the chine, its enlargement is perhaps as much, or more, owing to other influences. The action of the waves during great ftorms, when the fea is driven violently againft the cliffs, has tended confiderably to enlarge the opening of the chines, while the landflip?, which continually occur after fevere frofts, muft have caufed the fteep Hopes to fall in from time to time. But the deepening of the chines is always brought about by the ftream, as may be obferved in any of them where meafures are not taken to prevent the conftant wearing away of the rock."

A BIRD'S EYE VIEW, ETC. IJ

But no human meafures can in the wealth of time prevent nature from her work. A fkilful wall, a well-made brick-built water-way, may arreft the eating down of the land by the running water, but it will laft only a hundred years or two, and then patient nature will again work on.

But it is the botanift, the being who in friendly opposition to the geologift, feeks the lateft of heaven's work, as the geologift — and all honour to him — feeks the earlieft, who will find in the Ifle of Wight that he has been very fpecially pro- vided for. Very early in the fpring, and only two hours' journey away from Hampfliire, he may find fnowdrops and crocufes in full bloom, when on the main-land thofe daring flowers, with all their courage, have not ventured to raife their heads. A little later in the fpring, when not a leaf is fairly out upon even the fycamore tree, fhrubberies will be found radiant with little floral ftars, for the greater part white, and often the ground will be all a-tangle with wild ftrawberry, while the primrofes have grown fo large on all fides that they feem to be flowers which have come of age.

It may be faid of the Ifle of Wight, that here you may find examples of the entire Englifh flora, if not even of the floras of Wales, Ireland, and Scotland, with one of its own added. Efpecially are the ordinary fea-beach and fea-fide hill flowers to be found in perfection.

Flowers fcarcely know what winter means in the ifle. When nature has retired for the feafon in England, and mats are being put about pet plants in the neighbourhood of places even fo foutherly as London and Canterbury, away in the more favoured parts of the ifle, fuchfia, geranium, and myrtle are ftill throwing out bloom. Indeed,^ flowering plants appear to think that their hardeft working time of the year is about the period when, in other localities, vegetation,

l8 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

except of a very ordinary and market-gardening character, is going to reft. You get wild flowers, dale flowers, hedge flowers, foreft flowers, fand flowers, creepers innumerable, and ivy beyond convenience. Leaves on the trees are thicker than elfewhere, nettles grow higher; you may find heather on the broken downs ; and now and again a (harp-eyed botanift goes to the ifle and is fure to find one or two new varieties which have never been feen there before, and which have not been found in any other part of the United Kingdom.

Here we cannot enumerate the wonders of the Ifle of Wight flora ; we refer our readers to the Flora Vettenfis of Dr. Bromfield, whofe work has been edited and added to by Dr. Bell Salter. But a few revelling fentences may be permitted us. A botanift, or rather a florift — for the ifle is rather the fublunary heaven of the lover of flowers than the devotee of plants — will read the following lines with much the fame relifti that a judge of wines will read the cellar-book of a great wine collector.

Does the reader devote^ himfelf or herfelf to Botany ? Then let him feek the neighbourhood of Rookley, Frefhwater, Alverftone, Thorley, Shanklin, Quarr, and Cariibrook. There may be found the Ofmunda^ the Bog-pimpernely and Bog- ajphodel ; Utricularia minor (near Newchurch) ; Utricularia major (Freftiwater marfties); Trickomanes (Carifbrook and Quarr); the Adder's Tongue (Thorley and Eaft End); and Ruta Muraria (Fremwater and Calbourne).

Clofe in by the fea, between Ryde and Sandown, one is certain, at the fit and proper times, to be hailed by the Sea-fide Rujh^ Drop-wort, the Smooth Sea-heath^ Sea-holly, Yellow Centaury, Sea Mat-grafs^ and Nottingham Catch-fly.

Go to Newport and Carifbrook, and you will certainly find Jirabis Hirfuta^ Red-berried Briony, Autumnal Gentian^ Grammitis Ceterach^ Leajl Toad-flax, and Butcher's Broom.

A BIRD S EYE VIEW, ETC. 19

At Culver Cliffs are found the Portland Sponge and Orobanche (Broom-rape); at Binftead the Broad-leaved Helleborine ; upon the downs around Ventnor the Orchides (Ophrys Apifera and Ophrys Mufcifera] ; and the Bee-Orchis may be gathered at Ouarr and Binftead.

*>*s

" From the variety," fays an eminent phyfician, "which the Ifle of Wight prefents in point of elevation, foil, and afpect, and from the configuration of its hills and fhores, it poffeifes all things that can render it a highly favourable refidence for an invalid, and a habitat for innumerable flowers."

Poets, doctors, florifts, tourifts, all combine in unceafingly praifmg the Ifle of Wight.

It has a metropolis, of courfe — Newport ; and the number of

parifhes in the two Medinas is but of what avail fhall it

be that the reader learn the number of parifhes ? He would forget the numerals before he had turned the leaf.

It is more to the purpofe to point out that, culminating all its natural advantages, the Ifle of Wight poffeffes a " Governor of the Ifland." But it muft be conceded that his duties are merely nominal, for the age is againft fmall governments, divided authorities, and its powerful neighbour the county of Southampton, otherwife Hampfhire, has abforbed the ifl2 for " all general purpofes," as they exprefs it in the infula. How- ever, the Ifle of Wight returns two members to Parliament — one for the ifland, and one for Newport.

Of the principal towns we ftiall have to fay fomething in chapters methodically devoted to each ; but we may at once add, that the Ifle of Wight is a perfect little community in itfelf. It not only poffeflTes its governor, but it has its municipal organifation, its prifon, its poor-houfe — euphonioufly called "The Houfeoflnduftry," — and its military eft ablifliments. No lefs than three thoufand foldiers form the complement at Park-

2O THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

hurft barracks. The coaft-line is dotted with forts, the greater number ufelefs, while perhaps the fineft, and at the fame time ufeful military work completed within the Ifland boundaries confifts of the fplendid, direct, and fcientific military highway running along the fouthern length of the ifland from Frefhwater Bay to the out-crop of the Undercliff. It was this part of the ifland which was unfortified. Portfmouth protected an approach by way of Spithead ; Hurft Caftle and Yarmouth forts any advance upon Portfmouth through the Solent j while the Undercliff was a natural protection half-a-fcore of miles in extent. Brading, and the downs above it, protected the eaft of the ifland. Only the frequently doping land between Freihwater and Ventnor was utterly unprotected. During the time of the invafion panic, now feven or eight years fmce, fhrewd military men recalled to their memories how, in a comparatively recent — certainly within the modern hiftoric — period, the ifle had been held by an enemy, and the fcheme of the military road was brought forward and put into execution. It was accomplifhed with marvellous rapidity. Certainly it blocked the weak point in the Englifli line of fouthern fortifi- cations. A hoftile army, once poflefled. of the Ifle of Wight, a march to Ryde would place it within five miles of the great arfenal at Portfmouth. The formation of this road was, there- fore, the refult of amafterly idea. The road is not ufelefs, though fortunately it has never been applied to what may be called its legitimate ufes, fmce it forms a new direct road for the farmers. And this in itfelf is a benefit. Indeed the Ifle of Wight, looked at from a military point of view, is now merely an out- work to Portfmouth. But we prefer to look upon it from a more peaceful ftand-point, and regard it not as a field for warfare, but as the flower-garden and convalefcent hofpital of all England.

Some Account of the Political Hiftory of the Ifle of Wight.

HEN the antiquaries have effayed to fettle the derivation of the word Wight, the varia- tion of opinion has been, as it remains, moft ftartling. The ordinary man, who has thought upon the fubjedr, has often arrived at the conclufion, that the ifland being more or lefs furrounded by high cliffs of dazzling white chalk, the ifle gained its name Wight thereby, fome allowance being made for orthography, feeing that white muft be a very old Englifh word, fimply becaufe the names of colours are amongft the firft to be formed in a language, and the laft to be loft. And this fingle argument might be ftrengthened by the recolle&ion that England is abroad, very generally called Albion, owing to the dazzlingly white afpecl afforded by thofe fouthern cliffs which are the firft fpecimens of the country prefented to the foreign view.

22 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

But the antiquaries have permitted no fuch fimple derivation to fatisfy them. The Romans called the ifland Ve&a, or Vectis, and the antiquaries maintain that Ved-ta has been corrupted into Wight. They will not hear of the fuggeftion, that probably Caefar and his followers and fucceflbrs may have corrupted Wight into Ve&a ; a corruption which would be much after the procefs by the ufe of which our land came to be called Britannia.

Other antiquaries hold that Wight comes from an old Britim word, Guich, pronounced probably like " white," and which meant a breach or divifion, in this cafe referring to the fea dividing the ifle from the mainland. But under thefe circumftances it is difficult to comprehend why the term was not applied to the channel rather than the ifland. Both antiquarian fides, however, are agreed that the arguments of each are fupported by the entries in reference to the ifland which are to be found in "Domefday Book," where the reader has the choice between Weft, With, or Wicl:, a variety which is a good example of what corruption in pronunciation will effedr. even in one generation. It fhould however be urged that probably thefe three variations in the fpelling of the name of this ifland were almoft fymphonious ; the firft, no doubt, was pronounced " Wet," the fecond and third " White."

Antiquarianifm, like moft other fciences, is continually drifting towards fimplicity, and therefore we need have little hefitation in urging that the primitive name of the ifland, given to it by that wonderful exodus of peoples from various points on the fhores of the Mediterranean, which flowed up the outer coaft of Spain, Portugal, and France, and thence peopled the Britim Ifles, gave, in the firft place, as a maritime people, a name, the equivalent of our " white," to the ifland, a term the refult of the firft obfervation made by thofe early navigators

POLITICAL HISTORY. 23

whofe descendants we in a great meafure mud be. We may fairly believe that however the name may have been fpelt, through Roman, Saxon, Norman, and Englifh ages, the pronunciation has always been " white." Primitive names ihould be the landmarks of the antiquary. Amongft primitive names, thofe of hills, rivers, and iflands are molt marked for their perfiftency. The word l'pen" (hill or mountain,) is frill ufed over the whole of that portion of Europe where the races found by the invading North European had placed their feet. We poflefs a very ftriking and fingularly recent example of a defignation adhering to a grest phyfical outline, defpite the influx of new races. The names of almoft all the North American rivers, and of many of the States, remain Indian, albeit in many States the Indian blood has utterly ceafed to circulate. Mifiifiippi, Miflburi, Ohio, Maflachufetts — all thefe names are purely Indian. Who can fuppofe that upon the tongues of the millions thefe names can be changed?

Upon thefe arguments we bafe this claim — that the Ifle of Wight retains the name given it by the firfl human race which landed upon its fhores and peopled it — an out-going, fea-loving, blue-eyed race, who faw that the ifland was white, and called it " Wight."

It does not appear to be known when the feparation between the ifland and the mainland took place, a feparation which after years of patient working may have been made in a (ingle night. But it is juft poflible that the converfion of the peninfula of Wight into the Ifle of Wight may have been effected by the mighty ftorm which fwept along the Channel in 709. In that fearful cataftrojihe, Jerfey, which was then a peninfula joined to the coaft by feven miles of ifthmus, in pa.ts two to three miles wide, became an ifland in one night. The ftretch of feven miles was engulfed only to the depth of fome few feet, but

24 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

the fea gained its vi&ory. Once England muft have been wrefted in a fimilar manner from Europe, at the point where a line would ftretch between Dover and Calais. Only half a century ago, a fhell-encrufted bank, feen diftin&ly in the {hallow water, marked the place of a row of trees, which in 709 fringed a brook drowned in that great ftorm, which divided France from the feudal holding of Jerfey. This row of trees formed the boundary line, feparating the Jerfey from the Norman fifheries ; and only half a century fince, or a little more, in a great law-fuit between the Jerfey and the Normandy fimermen, in a French law court, this veritable old boundary line below the fea was brought forward as a natural witnefs againft the encroaching French fifhermen. The Jerfey netmen won the day, and to this hour they maintain their rights, founded upon a bank of fea-ftiells formed over a row of trees which was carried down into the fea more than a thoufand years ago. Suffice it to learn, that in fome mighty convulfion of nature, the fea, poffibly combined with volcanic action, did over- whelm the ifthmus connecting the now Ifle of Wight with the Englifh foil, and feparated it from the mother-land for ever.

"Art," fays an author, writing of the ifle — " Art, here, as in fome other cafes, yields to nature the palm of fuperiority. Nay, fo perfect is nature in thefe parts, that it is maintained the rate of mortality amongft thofe born on the ifland, living and dying there, is lower than of any fpot in the United Kingdom. The general returns, however, including deaths of invalids, or of people who have taken up their abode in the ifle as a forlorn hope, to obtain a little longer leafe of life, biing up the death per centage to quite the average for the whole of England. The true Wightman is very much hurt in his felf- love by this collective refult; but on the other hand he is by no means averfe to the benefits which are derived by the inflow of

POLITICAL HISTORY. 25

wealthy and liberal people, who poflefs apparently all the bleflings of worldly life, with the exception of that health which alone makes the reft endurable.

Timber was at one time plentiful over a greater part of the ifle, but the vicinity of a great dockyard, which until almoft to-day was crying perpetually for wood, wood (the demand has now changed to one for iron) is not a guarantee for the fafety of forefts. Portfmouth has effectually thinned the timber of the ifle. What woods there are, apart from private grounds, are mere tenderlings ; their thinned flirubberies, once oak and elm — the favourite woods of the navy — gave the ifle umbrageous fhadow and broken lines of fweeping landfcape. The oaks have long fince failed away over the oceans, and the elms are down, but the garden of England flill remains true to the words Scott wrote of another fpot —

" The roving fight

Purfues its pleafing courfe o'er neighbouring hills Of many a different form and different hue ; Bright with ripe corn, or green with grafs, Or dark with clover's purple bloom ! "

It is only within the laft twenty years that the general belief has been cleared away that, before the Roman invafion, the Ifle of Wight, in common with all England, was in- habited by barbarians. Archasologifts are now beginning to difcover, that to accept abfolutely as truth in relation to the primitive race who peopled the Britifh ifles, all or any part of what has been faid by paft writers, is to err. Antiquarians are beginning to experience the good effects of the ufe of induction, and to difccver that a perfonal inveftigation of what remains of the early races, together with the indirect and unintended evidence offered by the one important writer upon this fubjecl, leads them to the conclufion that to infer the Briton was a

26 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

favage, even in the earlier}, known times, is to be greatly miftaken.

It is a matter of deeply-rooted tradition in Ireland, that the country was once fo civilized that human life was at all times fafe, and in all parts of the land ; while the much difcufled round towers afford inevitable evidence of fomething like a ftate of civilization at the time of their ere&ion, becaufe a large building is in itfelf evidence of an advanced, a fettled, and a non-migratory life. Thence we infer, in reference to Wight, that it was in the firft place peopled by civilized colonifts from fouthern Europe, that thence this early people flowed over the fouth of England, and fo on to the north. We fubmit that when Caefar arrived off the coaft of fouthern England he met, not an army of barbarians, but forces of difciplined men, forces no doubt inferior in military and civil education to the Romans, but not therefore favages.

It goes for nothing that Caefar calls the Britons barbarians. It is a term which was equally applied to all people not within the pale of the Roman civilization, and therefore it may be accepted as of no more value than the fimilar term applied to us by the Chinefe and Japanefe, and under precifely limilar circumftances, thofe of being beyond the boundaries of China and Japan.

It is not to be expe&ed that Caefar, writing for Rome, will allow that the BrLifh did certainly drive back the Roman vanguard, as the men coinpofing it leapt into the (hallow water in which the galleys were anchored. But it appears to us, quite ingenuoufly, he tells how his foldiers were confounded by the novelty of the warfare oppofed to them. Now novelty is not a chara&eriftic of favage warfare, while Caefar had certainly had experience of war with people of primitive and barbarian character.

POLITICAL HISTORY. 27

There can be fcarcely any doubt that the chariot-warfare difplayed by the Biitifli, the marvellous ability with which the knight ran along the {haft of the chariot and caft his javelin, did drive back the Romans, not by the favagery of the refiftance, but by its comparative evidences of art and civilization.

But the refinance offered by the Britifti is not the only evidence we have that previoufly to the arrival of the Romans they were not wild men of the woods. Caefar writes, telling how his foldiers were gathering corn from the fields, when the foraging party was fallen upon and flain. Now this a& takes place almoft immediately after the Roman landing, and there- fore before the Romans had gained any opportunity of engraft- ing their own civilization upon the conquered people. Here then, we have the evidences of ftrategic war, and of compara- tive agriculture in favour of the theory that the people of the Britifli Ifles at the time of the Roman Conqueft were not in a ftate of mere barbarifm.

But there is another unqueftioned fhape of internal evidence of the early civilization of the Britifti Ifles, and one to which only a few years fince the Ifle of Wight, after the lapfe of almoft two thoufand years, contributed its atom of proof. We refer to the readinefs with which the Britons accepted the Roman rule —a readinefs which appears to us to be proof pofitive of one civilization at once rationally accepting another because a higher civilization.

In modern hiftory we know that conquered nations affimilate thcmfelves to the conquering, and therefore more civilized people, in exact proportion to their own previous civilization. As an example, let us point to the conqueft of the Red Indian by the American, and the partial conqueft of Japan by the Englifliman. In the firft cafe the Indian is rapidly dying out, for the whites conquered no civilization. In the fecond, the

28 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

Japanefe, although only a partially conquered people, recognife the value of that civilization which has thruft itfelf in amongft them, and they are gradually accepting all that is good in European thought and modern life.

We maintain that the early Britons were prepared to receive Rome. The Roman remains, very few as they are, prove that a very extended civilization, widening into the fhape of cities upon fpots which are now mere wildernefTes or fmall villages, over a great extent of England did exift. Amongft whom ? The Romans themfelves were no more colonifts than are the French of to-day. They did not conquer to find fpace for the people of their overgrown cities or provinces. They conquered as a military people, with whom it was a neceflhy always to keep large (landing citizen armies, which had to be fpread over the whole of the empire, but which, upon neceflity arifing, could be concentrated upon a given fpot.

It could not be for the few thoufands of foldiers ftationed in England that the vaft baths were built, the remains of which are being found every year, and in the moft out-of-the-way places. Then if thefe Roman baths were not for the con- querors, they exifted for the accommodation of the conquered, and we therefore arrive at the conclufion that at once the Biiton accepted the Roman rule, and that the acceptation was a proof of a comparatively anticipatory civilization.

No Roman remains having been found in the Ifle of Wight, the conclufion was taken and maintained that the Roman power had pafled over the ifle as valuelefs — unimportant; when, by accident in a garden in the very centre of the ifle, and suggeft- ing a little metropolis even in thofe early days, the remains of the teflelated floor of a Roman bath were found, a bath not fo large as to fiiggeft the idea that it was a public one, but

POLITICAL HISTORY. 2Q

sufficiently extenfive to juftify thefuppofition that it muft have formed part of an eftablifhment of much importance.

The difcovery of that Roman bath in the garden of Carifbrook parifli parfonage, perhaps the very fite of a Ro nan temple, at once admitted the Ifle of Wight within the grandiofe if unknown hiftory of the Bntifh Ifles under the Roman?, a hiftory which has to be written, and which will effectually dis- pofe of the belief {till generally held, (even by Macaulay,) with regard to early Britain, a conviction, it is to be feared, grounded for the moft part, as far as this generation goes, upon Goldfmith's ftupidly bad translation of Caesar, by which in our youth we were taught to believe that the Briton wore his hair long, lived in caves, ate roots, and painted himfelf blue.

There have of courfe always been evidences throughout the ifland of the Celtic race. Villages and earth-works of very early date may ftill be traced around Gallibury, Newbarns and Rowborough. Nor is the ifle wanting in many fpecimens of thofe tumuli or mounds which form one of its great archaeo- logical puzzles. Thefe barrows are found in pofitive abundance at Brooke, Afton, Chillerton, and notably upon Mottifcomb Downs. At Brixton is to be found a huge cairn, while many of the laft refting-places of this earh' people, about whofe origin the learned difagree, but who probably came from the eaft by way of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, are met with at Shal- combe, Bembridge, Wroxhali, St. Catherine's and Amey.

Opened, thefe barrows are found to contain urns of baked clay (evidences afluredly of the application of fire to the dead), varying in size and fhape, and bronze celts, a fort of chifel, an implement proving beyond queftion that the owners were workers in metal, or at all events had dealings with artizans of that character.

Caesar fpeaks of the Belga?, a Celtic tribe, as landing upon

3O THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

and taking poffeflion of the ifl.ind (B.C. 85). But it may be doubted whether Caesar made this ftatement upon any ftronger bafis than hearfay. It is far more rational to aiTume that the ifland, in common with Britain, as the large army which refifted Caesar proved, had been peopled through many generations, perchance centuries, and that the germs of civilization the early fettlers brought with them had been foftered and advanced.

However, only a few years after the grand tragedy, cul- minating upon Calvary, had been played out, in A D., 43-45, we know that Vefpafian brought the Ifle of Wight under the light weight of the Roman yoke.

Some knowledge of the populous condition of Britain about this time may be gained from the fa6l that Vefpafian engaged in thirty battles, and reduced twenty towns before the Britons of the fouthern provinces yielded once again to the Roman power, liberty being fweet though bondage bring luxury. Although therefore the Britifti accepted the Roman civiliza- tion, they again and again threw off the Latin bondage, until through the paffage of a few generations, they became veritably Roman in thought and life, fo that when the fierce hungry Saxons poured down upon them they turned quite naturally for help to imperial, yet trembling Rome herfelf.

By the year A.D. 240, the Britifti fubje&ion to Rome was complete. By A D. 292, the firft Britifti fleet, anchored off the Ifle of Wight, was ready to give battle in a bad caufe, for Conftantius, the Roman Emperor, having been difpoffeffed of Britain in the firft place by Caraufius, and afterwards by Alle&us, he equipped a powerful fleet, and failed from Gaul for Britain. Upon this occafion the Britifti fleet failed, for a mift completely hid the Roman galleys, and the legions were landed along the Englifti coaft without oppofition.

And thefe particulars are all that we can find in the Roman

POLITICAL HISTORY. 3!

literature which refers to the little Ifle of Wight. But recent inveftigations, which are ftill in their infancy, have difcovered remains of Roman villas at Clatterford and Brightfone ; the fquare outline of a Roman encampment near Bonchurch has been fwallowed by the fea within memory, and at one point of the ifland there are figns of an old Roman pottery. Let fome wife man found there another pottery, for your Roman potter never ufed other than good clay.

Near Ventnor, the birth of yefterday, which has no name in maps of the ifland of forty years ago, remains of Roman villas have been found ; and now that the hunt for fuch remains is in full cry, we have little doubt not a year will pafs during which fomething fhall not have been added to the hiftory of Rome in the Ifle of Wight.

The Rev. James White, however, has carried the Latin theory very far. That gentleman says, " Many traces of Roman occupation are ftill to be feen in the neighbourhood of Ventnor. Wife men indeed (names not given), tell us that the dark hair and brilliant eyes of the natives of this diftricl: are derived from a Roman anceftry." We rather fuppofe that, as in Wiltfhire, fo near Ventnor, the ancient Celtic chara&eriftics remain almoft utterly unchanged.

The Rev. E. Kell fays, " There are, befides, many roads called Streets, which if not always planned by the Romans were adopted by them. Thefe ftreets have, by their unufually large number in the ifland, the imprefs of extenfive Roman refidence. Thus, parts of the adopted Britifh tin road from north to fouth are called Rue Street, North Street, Chillerton Street, and Chale Street. On the weft there is Thorley Street and Street Place. On the eaft, Arreton Street, Bembridge Street, Haven Street, and Play Street ; and again, Elderton Street and Whip- pingham Street from north to fouth in the Eaft Medina.

32 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

There is fome appearance of arrangement in the roads running from the north to the fouth, and of a reference to Carifbrook Caftle as a centre, in the ftreets from eaft to weft."

No, the ifland was not a barren wafte in the time of the brilliant Romans. They muft have found the ifle a northern paradife — a place, in part reminding them of Italy. They found out the genial Ventnor — fweeteft of names — and built their villas under the friendly protecting Undercliff. They built fortifications ; therefore, they founded towns, and here, as elfewhere, they obtained power. But in return they were tolerant, pleafant mafters, giving good leflbns which bear their inherited fruit even to this day.

During the Roman occupation, that pompous four hundred years of the ifland's hiftory, which did its work and died, the Roman fhape of civilization was dying out and yielding to the Chriftian thought ; for we hold that Rome never morally declined, but has rifen over tyranny after tyranny, as fhe has always done, as fhe will always do, whatever the fhape of opprtffion. During thofe peaceful four hundred years the iflanders were protected upon the one condition of contribu- ting their fair number of young men to the Roman army. Then Rome called her foldiers home, and a time of wretched- nefs and defpair fwept over the land.

" Too oft has this fair ifland been the fcene Cf fierce contention, maflacre, and blood. The fword — great orphan-maker of the world ! Borne by the Saxon and the rugged Dane, Laid wafte for centuries the peafant's cot, Filling each field and plain with heaps of dead, And making every verdant valley blufh A crimfon hue !"

By 520 all hope of peace was at an end. In that year Cerdic and Cynric (both Jutes) fell upon the Ifle of Wight, and flew all before them up to Carifbrook. The Roman in-

POLITICAL HISTORY. 33

ftru&ion had taught the iflanders how to defend themfelves, and they fought bravely ; but they were a docile people, who had been at peace through centuries, cultivating the fields, and making pottery for the Roman market, or oyfter fifti- ing for the great city on the Tiber. The Jutes were men who fought, as it were, after leaving burnt bridges and boats behind them. They were human birds of prey who knew that if they did not conquer they muft die — that there was no home behind them — that they muft hew out a prefent and a future with their fwords.

The Jutes were not driven out of the ifland.

A hundred years, and then approached the firft of thofe blood-thirfty crufades through which the Chriftian religion, fo mild in origin, has had to pafs. It is a miftake to fuppofe that the crufades were begun in the time of Peter the Hermit, in the eleventh century. They commenced almoft immediately after Conftantine had accepted and adopted Chriftianity — whether from policy, or conviction, or the force of fuperftition, we (hall never know.

The Ifle of Wight was one of the firft fpots to feel that Chriftianity could have a heavy hand. In 661, Wulfhere, king of Mercia, one of the very earlieft of the Saxon kings to fight confeffedly for the Chriftian faith, overthrew Cenwalt, or Kenwalt, king of the Weft Saxons, pafled through Weflex, now Hampshire, and crofting over to the ifle, very quickly fubdued it, probably owing to the fadt that the iflanders, ftill clinging to the hereditary remembrance of the comparatively benignant Roman fway, cared little to defend themfelves in favour of the reigning Jutic family ; and ^Edelwald, king of the South Saxons, the land now called Suflex, having about this time accepted Chriftianity from the conqueror's hands, the victor gave him, as a baptifmal prefent, this fame Ifle of Wight,

F

34 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

under the exprefs condition that he converted the people of his new province to the new religion. To this end the frefhly- crowned fovereign was helped by one Eoppa, a propagandift. But the people, who had moft readily yielded to a change in the temporal government, clung defperately to the luxurious and fedu&ive religion which was then all that remained to them of the old peaceful Roman dominion.

But the early march of Chriftianity was inevitable, for it was enforced by the fword. Through twenty years did the iflanders hold their own, and then, fword in hand, " Caedwalla, king of WefTex, aided by his brother .Mul,". fays Henry of Huntingdon, " praifeworthy and gracious, terrible in power, and excellent in perfon, beloved by all, and of a widefpread favour, did fubdue the ifland, and caufe the iflanders to accept cheerfully the faith."

However, when we affume that the iflanders adhered to the Latin mythology, and refufed to accept Chriftianity, we are only ufmg an afTumption, which takes fhape from the belief that the iflanders could not have remained four hundred years under the Roman fway, without acquiring a tafte for the poetry and beauty of the Latin faith, as compared with the horrors and myfteries of their earlier beliefs.

But moft authorities diftinctly maintain that the religion conquered by the Chriftian was the Druidic faith. The chief authority for this ftatement is the work of the venerable Bede, who has given an account of the converfion of the ifland in very quaint, charming phrafes. But it muft not be forgotten that Bede fimply compiled from Saxon chronicles, written unques- tionably by monks. Nor are his ftatements borne out by any internal evidence.

Now, as the Romans rarely interfered with the faith of any people they conquered, it is poflible that the Druidic form of

POLITICAL HISTORY. 35

worfhip may have prevailed. By the way, we have no doubt the horrors of Druid ifm have been greatly exaggerated, though, at the fame time, undoubtedly human facrifices were made, as they were confummated, for that matter, probably in all the religions preceding the Chriftian. Yet at the fame time the attractions of the Latin mythology, through, fuch a ftretch or time as four hundred years, mutt have had enormous weight in influencing the religious thought of- the people. The vene- rable Bede says, "After that Caedwalla -had conquered the kingdom of the Geriffi, he alfo -fubdued the Ifle of Wight, A.D. 686, which up to that time had been abandoned to idol- worfhip ; and he fought to exterminate the natives by a terrible {laughter, and in their place to'effablifli his own followers. And he bound himfelfby a vow,' although" not then regenerated in Chrift, that if he gained the ifland, a fourth part thereof, and of the fpoil, he would dedicate to God. , This vow he fulfilled by beftowing it, "for God's, fervice, upon Wilfred the Bifhop, who was prefent' with him. : Now, the meafurement of the faid ifland, according- to the English ftandard, being twelve hundred families, there was given unto the bifhop the land of three hundred families ;, and the portion which he thus received he intruded to the care of a certain one of his clergy Bernuin, his fitter's fon j and he gave him a prieft named Hildila, that he might preach the word, and adminifter the waters of life to thofe who ihould defire falvation.

" Now, I think it fhould not be patted over in filence that, amongft the first-fruits of thofe who were faved in that ifland by belief, were two princely youths, the brothers of Arnald, king of the ifland, who were crowned with the fpecial grace of God j inasmuch as when the ifland was menaced by the enemy, they took to flight and crofled over into the next province of the Juti, and being conveyed to a place which is

36 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

called Ad Lapidem (Stone, or Stoneham), where it was thought they might be hidden from the fearch of the vi&orious monarch, were foully betrayed, and doomed by him to death. Whereupon a certain abbot and prieft, named Cyniberdt, who governed a monaftery not far diftant, at a place which is called Hretford) that is, Redford (Redbridge), went to the king, who was then concealed in that neighbourhood, that he might be healed of wounds received while fighting in the Ifle of Wight, and befought of him, that if it needs muft be that the young princes fhould die, at leaft he might firft be fuffered to adminifter to them the facraments of the Chriftian religion. To this the king confented ; and the prieft having taught them the word of truth, and warned them in the waters of falvation, rendered them fure of adtniflion into the kingdom of heaven. And fo, when the doomfman appeared, they gladly endured a temporal death, not doubting that thereby they would pafs to the eternal life of the foul. Thus it was, that after all the provinces of Britain had accepted Chriftianity, the Ifle of Wight alfo received it, though, on account of the heavinefs of foreign domination, no one was appointed to the miniftry thereof, nor to the bifhop's feat, until Danihel, now bifhop of the Eaft Saxons." — Bede^ Ecc. Hijhry, iv. 16.

But the hiftorian does not mention the facl: that the coriver- fion was not a very coloflal achievement, for that Casdwalla had put all the wretched iflanders to the fword with the excep- tion of three hundred families, who accepted the new faith as an exemption from death. Indeed, if Druidifm greatly prevailed up to the feventh century, and then required for its deftru&ion, in one of its laft ftrongholds, the almoft total extermination of its adherents, it muft have been poffefled of fome principle of attraction totally unknown to us.

And now that long peaceful ftretch of time, defignated

POLITICAL HISTORY. 37

the Roman occupation, muft have patted away even from the memory of the iflanders. Never, from the time of their conver- fion to that faith of peace which in its early ages was fo utterly a faith of war — never from that date until comparatively recent years, were the iflanders free from invafion. We have already feen how, only a few years fince, when the great queftion of fortifications was agitating England, it was at once determined that the Ifle of Wight muft be protected by a great military road — fuch a work that it has not been ap- proached by any military achievement in the ifland fince the exodus of the Romans.

It may be faid that between 787 and 897, the ifland was never fiee from plunder and defolation. The commercial profperity of the ifland muft long before thefe dates have wholly departed.

And now as the commencement of the feudal fyftem frequently threw king and feudal baron into oppofition — the fatal pofition of the Ifle of Wight told againft it. An angry lord, fleeing from the fway of a king, took refuge in the ifland, and pillaged it; or fome half-outlawed Norman lord came over and laid it wafte. Then, when either of thefe encumbrances was driven out by the legitimate king, there was more plunder, more bloodfhed — and no relief, except death, was to be found.

So manywerethefeonflaughtsthattheyarenoteven chronicled ; and it is not until we come to the year 1052, when William of Normandy was looking eagerly towards England, and Edward, entitled the Confeflbr, was living that weak but pure life which obtained for him his diftin&ion, that we again find hiftorical mention of a mercilefs raid upon the Ifle of Wight. It is now Earl Godwin, who, being an exile and an outlaw, obtains a fleet from the Earl of Flanders, fwoops upon the poor little ifland, and ravages it of what remained worth the

38 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

taking away. The excufe for this murder and rapine was grounded upon the allegation that the iflanders had been very civil to the Normans, the great favourites of Edward the Con- feflbr, who had not himfelf behaved with fufficient civility to the Earl Godwin.

It is a fufficient proof how utterly mercilefs were the a&s of the Danes upon the Ifle of Wight — how far apart from civiliza- tion— that there is not the fainteft evidence of their flay upon the ifland. They ravaged, laid wafte, created a wildernefs, but could not colonize, and turned their backs upon the land, only to return when the wretched inhabitants had once more, by peace and induftry, made it produce wealth fufficient for the ftealing.

However, the knowledge of the arts and fciences taught by the Romans could never have totally died, out, for glafs was manufactured by the iflanders, and ftone worked in the time of the Saxons, from whom afTuredly the- Wighters learnt no fine arts. As the time neared to that degenerate period, when once again a Latinized ; race was to contend with the Saxon people, who had to fome extent fupplanted the original Britifh, . and efpecially upon the eaftern and fouth- eaftern (bores, the Ifle of Wight became a mere debateable ground for the two parties— on the one hand that of Godwin, who reprefented the eflentially Saxon interefts j on the other, of Edward the ConfefTor and his Norman favourites. During the laft few years of Edward's life Earl Godwin may be faid to have been the king of the Ifle of Wight, for he became paramount upon the ifland. And it is a fufficient proof of the ineffaceable energy and activity of the iflanders that, not- withftanding the incefTant ravages of their land and pofleffions through four hundred years, fo far were they from defpair that they, by their induftry, were able to proviiion Godwin's fleet, and even to afford men to make up the complement of his crews.

POLITICAL HISTORY. 39

The Saxon Chronicle, which of courfe paints the a£s of the Saxons in the brighteft colours, fays, in reference to this imminent period in the hiftory of England: — "In 1052, Godwin did, with his fons Sweyn and Harold, land upon the ifland, but they did not much evil, except that they feized pro- vifions. But they drew unto them all the land-folk by the fea-coaft, and alfo up the country." Other chronicles paint this incurfion in very different colours, albeit thofe of the Saxon Chronicle are fufficiently dark.

A few years, and the laft of the Saxon incurfions upon the ifland was effected. Once more Britain was under the control of a Latinized race, and from its influence, whether for good or bad, it was never again to be freed.

Harold, the laft Saxon king — who had no more right to the throne, except the blind right of force, than the next fwineherd, and who was falfe to the true Saxon heir, Edgar Atheling, as he was unfaithful to the promifes made to William of Normandy— held high court in . the ifle fome ftiort time before the fatal ftrife at Senlac, afterwards called Battle; and the Saxon falling, .William of Normandy reigned, and the Saxon fyftem of ravaging warfare was annihilated.

The character of the incurfions made into the ifland now changed. Fire and fword, in the hands of a Norman, William Fitz-Ofborne, once more fwept over the fcrap of land fur- rounded by the fea, but the policy of the Normans was not that of the Saxons. They did not lay wafte, with the full intention of "raifing" what they could, and of then departing. This incurfion was rather a policy of feudalifm, a policy by which a people was effectually fubdued and held in a fort of flavery, but which, at the fame time, though blackened by many fhameful conditions, did offer fomething like a bargain

4-O THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

to the people, and did certainly tend to bind a lord and his fervitors into a fhape refembling that of a family.

Whether the dukes of Normandy were French or not, whether the Normans were French or not, matters little. However, if neither lords nor people were Gallic in blood, if they were really Scandinavian, it is difficult to afcertain by what means they came to ufe the Gallic language exclufively, to the utter extinction of the Scandinavian form of fpeech. Still more difficult is it to comprehend by what fuperhuman means a people could throw off its language and take to another. And, again, the queftion muft arife, why fhould a people give itfelf the trouble — afluming them to have the power — to change the language ? And what end was purpofed to be gained by fuch an unpatriotic determination ? Let all this be as it may, it is certain that the Norman conquerors were the heritors of the Latin policy. They did not devaftate to leave, they devaftated to conquer and remain.

Throughout the Saxon Chronicle, in its relation with the ifland, we find no evidence that the Saxons benefited Wight in any way whatever. But the hour in which we find Fitz- Ofborne conquering the land, in that fame hour we find the promife of benefit held out to the iflanders. The Norman comes with fire and fword, with is terrible feudal rights, with his confcioufnefs of being a king in petto. He carries with him the power of life and death, of enforcing mightieft obedience : the favage foreft and gamelaws follow in his train, many of which (till exift, the plague and worry of almoft every country gentleman. But, exactly as the Norman pafled the night at the battle of Haftings, in prayer, while the Saxon fwept through the hours fhouting and drinking, fo this con- queror, Fitz-Ofborne, in fubduing the ifland, once more brings in his wake, prayer, and the peace of prayer. He appropriates

POLITICAL HISTORY. 4!

the land to his own ufe and profit, he divides it amongft his more immediate followers, upon conditions of the military attachment of themfelves and all upon their land to his own perfon ; but he founds a ftately priory in the fweet valley of Carifbrook, and foon feveral churches are rifing heavenwards. Then follows a company of Ciftercians.

In thefe days, when the miffion of monks is fulfilled, and the learning, of which they were the centres, has fwept onward upon the dominant wings of the printing prefs, when we only look upon monkery from the miferable point of view it prefented at the time of the Reformation, when the bad policy of the head of the Roman Church, through two hun- dred years and more, in forcing temporal power upon the fpiritual, had borne its fruit of corruption and wickednefs — in thefe days we are apt to look upon the whole monkifti fyftem as thoroughly rotten at all times and under all cir- cumftances.

No belief can be more utterly without foundation. Mon- afteries were the only practical fchools of the middle ages ; and indeed, can it be more clearly proved that monks muft have been high-clafs men, than by fignalling the fa6t that it was a monk who led the Reformation. Luther was no layman, no hard-headed citizen who had never ufed a breviary ; on the contrary, he was a monk who had crept into a monaftery, overwhelmed by the death of a friend ftruck dead by light- ning, as he and Luther were walking in a field — and had lived twenty years a monk. Never did Luther condemn the good work of a monk; he but condemned the monfrrofities of a perverted religion.

The monks taught the Chriftian world all it knew up to the time of the invention of printing; then, as far as his fcholaftic ufe went, there was an end of the monk. His firft work was

G

42 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

the teaching of agriculture, and, therefore, it will be found that every monaftery throughout England is planted in a fertile valley and by a running brook that can turn a water mill, which mills, for the greater part, ftill remain. But it is not any the lefs a fact, that the monks were the firft millers, the firft farmers, and, in all probability, the firft cattle-dealers. To this day, monks, in various parts of the world, drive very excellent trades in various rare and unrivalled manufactures.

And fo, though Fitz-Ofborne brought fire and fxvord to the Ifle of Wight, he arrived alfo with many peaceful arts. Soon the fweet bells were calling to prayer, foon the fields were being cultivated in new and profperous ways, foon fruit was growing in the monaftery gardens, and flowers, many of them fince become wild in the fertile foil, began to charm the iflanders.

For two hundred years from the date of the conqueft the hiftory of the ifland is one of peacefulnefs. Nay, it is faid it even became a refuge to that moft miferable of men, King John, who fo very fortunately came to the throne of England ; and we fay very fortunately, becaufe the advent of a weak and therefore unjuft king, is the opportunity of the people. Cer- tainly, John Sans-terre — and he died true to his early name — was chronically attracted towards the conftitution, exiftence, and defenfive value of iflands; and indeed, he granted to Jerfey, in order to fave the Jerfeyites from yielding to the fvvay of their powerful French neighbours, fuch a remarkable charter that in all probability it was the form upon which was framed the great Charter whence England dates her national liberty.

If John really took refuge in the Ifle of Wight during his feeble fight with barons and pope, afluredly the infulars kept well his royal fecret.

But two hundred and a fcore of years being paft, the paternal

POLITICAL HISTORY. 43

ferenity and peace of the iflanders — ferenity and peace bought at the fole expenfe of feudal fidelity to the reigning lord of the ifland — were fwept away : the iflanders were again to experience thofe woes of ambitious contention which have always inevit- ably fallen upon the people, whichever fide became victorious. In 1293 Edward I. purchafed the feudal rights of the lord of the ifle, and from that time the ifland loft its individuality and became part of England. It was too near the main land to refift. Could it have been further from the land, it might have bargained, as did Jerfey, with King John. It might, in common, have obtained all the advantages which both France and England had to offer, and rejected all the difad vantages — a pofition in which the Channel Republic remains and is likely to remain. But Wight was figuratively only a stone's throw from the main land, and its individuality was taken to market and fold for ^4,000, money of that day, equal in value perhaps to ^2O,ooo of to-day. The 4t perfon " who fold the feudalities of the ifle, it must regretably be {rated, was a lady, Ifabella de Fortibus, " Lady of Wight," to whom the lordftiip had reverted only the year previous to the fale, by the death of her brother, one Baldwin, fifth Earl of Devon- fhire, and Lord of the Ifle of WJo;ht.

9 *J

It is faid this lady died on the very day upon which fhe com- pleted the extraordinary contract which barred her family from the rights of fovereignty ; they muft have been of refpecl- able character, for it does not appear that they exprefTed any belief that their head had been poifoned as a very complete way of fealing the compact. Nor does it appear that any reafon was afligned for this ftrange and difloyal ad-l on the part of the lady.

The Hiftory of the Ifle

FROM THE DATE OF ITS ANNEXATION TO THE ENGLISH THRONE.

ROM the hour when Ifabella de Fortibus fold the Ifle to the Britifti Crown, to the prefent time, it has been governed, under the reigning houfe in England, by a line of Cuftodes or Wardens, who in early times really pofleffed fome power, but whofe authority gradually, almoft impercept- ibly dwindled, until even fo far back as the time of the Stuarts, the Wardenfhip was little more than an honorary appointment. In our days the Warden, now called the Governor, enjoys a comfortable finecure.

However, the family of Ifabella de Fortibus did not yield the point of pofTeffion with feudal readinefs. The next heir, Hugh de Courtenay (and the Courtenays of to-day may well be proud of an anceftor who could deny the juftice of a Plan- tagenet of the fourteenth century), protefted before the body of barons againft this alienation, and he maintained that undue

THE HISTORY OF THE ISLE. 45

influence had been ufed to obtain the confent of the heirefs. A brave man, but rafh ; for what fubje6t, not being of the royal family, ever obtained a decided viftory over a Plantagenet ? However, the court had the decency to allow the attempt on the part of the Courtenays to continue through a fcore of years, and then a decifion was gravely given in favour of the Crown.

In the time of Edward II., the ifle fell upon very evil times, for that deplorable king, exercifing his accuftomed idiocy — and the aft was in itfelf fo imbecile as to be almoft an example of courage — gave the lordlhip of the ifle to Piers Gavefton, who accepted the office to honour it by being an abfentee. As the world knows, the barons having then held power through the great charter for a century, and being the defcendants of thofe who had conquered the weak John, finding a ftill weaker monarch in Edward II., fo effe&ually protefted againft Gavefton, that Wight was foon relieved from its new warden by the fummary procefs of aflaffination : and now the king beftowed the lordfhip of the ifle upon the Earl of Chefter, afterwards Edward III., then about ten years of age.

By this time France was ftrong enough to be menacing towards England, and therefore the Ifle of Wight was a point which called for immenfe watchfulnefs. The governor, ex- peeling the ifle would be attacked by the French, was fufficiently forefeeing to order the building of twenty-nine beacons, and two watch towers, at equi-diftant points, fo that information of the anticipated invaflon might, in the event of its attempt, at once be flamed over the ifle. We are furthermore told that the valiant young prince made many wife regulations affecting both the clergy and the laity in reference to the provifion of men and arms.

As the fagacious prince forefaw, the French landed, and even reached Carifbrook, defpite the beacons and the pre-

46 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

cautions. But, the Caftle reached, the fortune of the day turned, and the French were not only thoroughly beaten, but driven back to their fhips with great lofs.

The ifland then had some breathing fpace until the next weak prince filled the throne, to wit, Richard II., when once again the French contemplated a raid upon England, with Wight for a ftarting-point.

But by this time intercommunication was in fomewhat an advanced condition, and the confequence refulted that in addition to the regular defence of the ifland, which confifted of nine companies of militia, which therefore made nine hundred men-at-arms, reinforcements had arrived, not only from Southampton, but even from London.

And it muft be admitted as a portion of the hiftory of the Ifle of Wight and the reft of England, that once again the French landed, and fo fuccefsfully, that they deftroyed, without impediment, the towns of Ryde, Yarmouth, and even New- port. However, the enemy was once again to fail before the walls of Carifbrook, which they very valiantly and perfiftently attacked.

It appears that the Engliih waited for the enemy at Carif- brook, abandoning the deftroyed towns with a readinefs it is quite impoffible to admire or excufe, and as upon the previous occafion, the invaders were driven back. But only after a vigorous fiege and great lofles ; and their final overthrow was, in a great meafure, due to the fuccefs of an ambufcade on the part of the iflanders, who laid in wait for the enemy on their way to furprife the Caftle at its weakeft point, and were fo fortunate in overcoming them, that the roadway in which the mafs of the French fell, is emphatically called to this day " Deadmen's Lane," while the mound of earth raifed over the flain, who were buried in a heap, gave a name to the hill,

THE HISTORY OF THE ISLE. 47

the ground of which received them — that of Noddies Hill, to this day called Node Hill, though we confefs we are at a lofs to comprehend the appropriatenefs of the title.

However, the defeat of the French before the caftle was not a final victory. They ftill remained mafters of the ifland, the Knglifli continuing {hut up in the caftle, while the enemy were fufficiently powerful to levy a contribution amounting to one thoufand marks, as a bribe for the prefervation of the remaining towns. An oath was alfo demanded and obtained by the French, upon their quitting the ifland, that, fhould they return within twelve months, the iflanders fliould hold them to be their mafters.

The Gauls did not again show an appearance until the following century, when Henry V., plaguing France with his ram and ambitious wars, the French very naturally retaliated. The Ifle of Wight, always a fufferer through tradition — poflibly as much as pofition — once again was harried by the French hofts.

But by this time England was beginning to fhape herfelf into a warlike power, and a prefence in the face of Europe, for hitherto £he had been regarded as only a fecond-rate power compared with France, Spain, and Auftria, and much to the furprife of the Gauls, they were driven from the ifland, not only with great lofs, but after relinquiming what little booty they had feized in the fhape of cattle.

And this was the firft occafion upon which the iflanders had depended rather on themfelves than their caftle, in the face of an incurfion into their garden ifland of an armed enemy.

A few years later the iflanders were able to parley with an invading French force, and to offer the enemy fair fighting terms ; for the French landing, and demanding a ufual fubfidy

48 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

in the name of Richard II., the iflanders replied that Richard was dead, and his fair queen Ifabella fent honourably back to France, there being no queftion of fubfidy ; yet, neverthelefs, if the French decided to try what they could do, they were at liberty to land to the laft man before the fighting commenced, and then take fix fair hours' reft and refrefhment, when, if they would, French and Englifh could have a fet-to.

Never was warlike offer fairer than this; but the French were uncivil enough to decline the fpirited invitation, bade the iflanders a courteous good-day, and once mere failed fouth- ward.

Almoft another century-and-a-half then paffed before the French made another attempt on the little ifland. This event occurred in the reign of Henry VIII. ; the iflanders were by that time becoming too well organifed to admit of much fuccefs, but they managed to land upon the ifland, and hav- ing feized all they could, and before the alarm had reached even Carifbrook, much lefs the main land, they beat a difcreet retreat.

The iflanders were now pleafed to furnifh themfelves with war machinery, which we find defcribed in the records of the ifland as " parochial artillery," a procefs which was effected by each parifh faithfully fubfcribing one piece of light brafs ordnance, to be held at the full difpofal of the French, and this inftrument was parochially kept either in the parifti church itfelf, or in a fmall building expreflly erected in its honour.

In thefe days we wonder at what appears to have been the ufeleflhefs of diftributing cannon, or, as the archives have it, ordnanre, over the ifland after the manner of a diaper, when evidently the more rational way would have been to keep gunnery upon the coaft line. But it {hould not be forgotten

THE HISTORY OF THE ISLE. 49

that every parifh was for itfelf, and it could be no great comfort to Shalfleet if its ordnance helped to keep the French off Yarmouth, but at the fame time drove their enemies farther up the coaft, fo as to enable them to fwarm down from the Solent upon the village of Shalfleet itfelf.

No doubt the origin of the furnifliing of this parochial artillery was bafed on the long-handed-down memory of the battle of Crecy, the fuccefs of which muft have been due, in a confiderable degree, to the novel ufe of cannon. The Englifh preftige in relation to artillery, aided in the firft place by the myfterious Friar Bacon, certainly remained known to the Englifh and feared by the French until a comparatively recent period — that of Charles II. This king, being the paid vaflal of Louis XIV., the confequent careleffnefs of the Englifh Government, and the unequalled power of the French king, enabled our neighbours, who were at the time perpetually at war, temporarily to outftrip us. Perhaps it need not be faid that fmce the days of Charles II. we have recovered pofhion in the race of war and victory.

It is juft poffible that this provifion of artillery was one of the very earlieft attempts made fyftematically to defend the fouthern coaft of England. It is faid that towards the end of the laft century, fome fixteen or eighteen of thefe parochial protectors were ftill in exiftence, but in the reign of Victoria no man knoweth of their whereabouts.

Pennant, in his " Journey from London to the Ifle of Wight," fays that the necefTary refult of this introduction of artilleiy was to make of many of the iflanders excellent gunners. The parifhes were liberal, for they provided carriages to the guns, and did not even expedt the Govern- ment to pay for ammunition. Particular farms, or rather farmers, were alfo charged with the duty of finding horfes to

H

50 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

drag thefe machines ; though it muft be admitted the require- ments were not great, feeing that the ordnance was of very low calibre, fome pieces being only as high as fix-pounders, while others fell to the infignificance of one-pounders.

The defenfive movement, having now very practically been initiated (we have no doubt by the Worfley of that day), it began to aflume royal dimenfions, for Henry VIII. commanded the erection of the building politely called Yarmouth Caftle, which ftill ftands at the mouth of the Yar. The period of the erection of this remarkable edifice is that of the alliance between Henry VIII. and the Emperor Charles V. of Spain, a time when Henry had not difcovered that his marriage with Katherine of Arragon was inceftuous, an alliance which of courfe once more threw England and France into oppofition. For Spain and France were the great continental powers, and England gave the fupremacy of power exactly as (he declared for one or the other.

In 1541-3, when the Spanifh alliance had long fince been blown to the winds, when the Spanifh princefs was dead, Anne Boleyn headlefs, Jane Seymour in the grave, Anne of Cleves divorced, and Catherine Howard gone to the block — when Henry had not only become the great tyrant of Europe, but was breaking in health and the power of enjoyment — he vifited the ifland, making one of thofe royal progrefles diftinguiftied by the ruin of the gentry he honoured with his prefence. Henry was the gueft of Richard Worfley, of Appuldurcombe, the then captain of the ifland, who was equally honoured and over- whelmed by his royal vifitor. The King went to the ifland oftenfibly to hawk, a fport he dearly loved while he could find a horfe capable of carrying him.

This Richard Worfley, a good man and true, who had readily fallen in with the fcheme of the Reformation, held his

THE HISTORY OF THE ISLE. 5!

own as captain of the ifland through the remaining years of Henry VIII. and the weak fhort reign of Edward VI., when upon the acceflion of Mary Tudor he was difmifled in difgrace. It therefore need hardly be faid that when Elizabeth afcended the Englifli throne, Richard Worfley once more became a man of power, who willingly acquiefced in the Queen's direction " to care for the increafe of Harquebufey in the Ifland." The queen pofTefled, hereditarily perhaps from her father, fome love of hawking, and fhe made it a matter of fpecial truft to the governor, " that the hawks of Culver be not deftroyed." In Culver Cliffs, at that time, was a breed of hawks, the remains of which are ftill to be found in Wight.

And now the ifland obtained a comparative reft, until the Spanifli Armada threatened it, in common with the reft of the Britilh. fea coaft. In our days we can have no con- ception of the enormous power Spain wielded in the fixteenth century j indeed, we may venture to aflert that the Spanifli maritime fupremacy was far greater in that era, than now is, comparatively, our own in the nineteenth. For it muft be remembered that if we poflefs a leading navy, both France and Ruffia are not unprovided with the means of fea war- fare. But in the time of Elizabeth, the Englifli marine was only budding into power. Indeed, it may be urged that the victory over what remained of the huge Armada after the great ftorm which almoft annihilated it was the origin of the fupremacy we enjoy.

The Spanifli was the one fleet in exiftence, and it muft not be forgotten that there was a large party in England which was ftill favourable to the oftenfible caufe for which the Armada was equipped — the aflertion of Catholicifm.

Sir George Carey was captain of the Ifle of Wight at that momentous time, and there can be no doubt of his ftaunch

52 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

adherence to Elizabeth, for he was not only in favour at court, but he was a fecond coufm of the Queen's— his father, Lord Hudfon, having been Anne Boleyn's nephew. Now Wight rofe as one man, and put its forts, and parochial artillery, and rtrong men in order. Sir George himfelf appears to have been a man of much forefight — doubtlefs he had thoroughly at heart the dreary experience learnt by the iflanders through many generations, that whenever England was threatened by an enemy it was always the Ifle of Wight which was the firft point to a'ttraft the invader.

The preparations appear to have been entered into with remarkable readinefs by the Wighters. But Sir George was not popular with the gentry, and they conftrued thefe preparations into covert attacks upon themfelves, and into implied doubts of their fidelity. Macaulay perfectly comprehended the growth of fuch a feeling, for that hiftorian recognifes that there remained much Catholic leaven in Britain, and which rofe and demonftrated itfelf the moment Spain took active fleps to oppofe the Proteftant religion in the United Kingdom, as fhe had previoufly only too effectually oppofed it in the Nether- lands.

Sir George Carey's manner was haughty and repellent. Whether this mode of conducting himfelf was the refult of natural bias, or a confequence of his near relationfhip to the crown, it is quite beyond queftion that, while he created averfion amongft the infular gentry, after events in hiftory prove that this feeling could not have been the refult of a general tendency to fympathife with the Spanifh attempt, but of veritable perfonal diflike to the man himfelf. The gentry even went the length of drawing up a petition of remonftrance to the Lords of the Council, by whom it was difmifled ignominioufly.

THE HISTORY OF THE ISLE. 53

The Wight gentlemen however were not eafily thwarted, for upon intelligence of their defeat reaching them, they framed a forcible letter, which was addrefled to Sir Chriftopher Hatton, the then Lord Chancellor, he who had, faid fcandal, been helped to the woolfack by the elegance of his manner and the fprighdinefs of his carriage.

The gentry, at the fame time, in the moft loyal fafliion forwarded a letter to Sir George himfclf, containing the information that Sir Chriftopher had been written to. Carey anfwered the communication with more logic than courtefy.

The hiftory of the difpute between Sir George Carey and the gentry of the ifle remains to be written, fhould the materials ever be found upon which fuch a work could be accomplifhed. But looking back upon the evidence of fair, we are compelled to come to the conclufion that Sir George was practically right, and the gentry practically wrong. This con- clufion is confirmed by the fa6t, that it was Elizabeth's policy, whatever might be her perfonal defire or diflike, to keep the right man in the right place. Sir George remained mafter of Wight long after the Armada panic, if panic the fear of that powerful fleet can be termed — a certain proof that his captaincy was good. And, indeed, we hear of no more com- plaints levelled at him. But there is other evidence of his good rule, and fuch as will at once go ftraight to the heart and comprehenfion of every Englifhman. It is that given by Sir John Ogiander, who in his memoirs offers good teftimony in favour of Carey. He wrote no later after Elizabeth's time than within the firft dozen years of James I.

" In Queen Elizabeth's time," fays Sir John, " money was as plenty in yeomen's purfes as now in the beft of the gentry j and all the gentry full of money and out of debt. The market, full of commodityes, vending themfelves at moft high rates.

54 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

Prizes and men-of-war at the Cowes, which gave great rates for our commodityes, and exchanged other good ones with us. If you had anything to fell, you fhould not have needed to have looked for a chapman, for you would not almoft afk but have ; all things were exported and imported at your heart's defire ; your tenants rich, and a bargain would not fraud at any rate. The State was well ordered ; we had in a good manner wars with Spain and peace with France ; and the Low Countrymen (Hollanders) were our fervants, not our mafters. Then it was infula fortunata, now it is infortunata."

Sir John, however, referves the grand proof of the fuccefs of Carey's government, in connection with Elizabeth, as a final argument.

" I have heard," fays Sir John, "and partly know it to be true, that not only heretofore there was no lawyer or attorney coming into owre ifland, but in Sir George Carey's time, an attorney coming to fettle in the ifland, was by his command, with a pound of candles hanging att his breech lighted, with bells about his legs, hunted owte of the ifland ; infomuch as owre anceftors lived here fo quietly and fecurely, being neither troubled to London nor Winchefter, fo they feldom or never went owte of the ifland ; infomuch as when they went to London (thinking it an Eafl India voyage), they always made their wills, fuppofing no trouble like to travaile.

" The Ifle of Wight, fince my memory, is infinitely decayed ; for either it is by reafon of fo many attorneys that hath of late made this their habitation, and fo by futes undone the country (for I have known an attorney bring down after a tearm three hundred ivritts^ I have alfo known twenty nlfi prius of our country tried at our aflizes, when as in the Queen's time we had notjix ivritts in a yeare, nor one niji prius in fix

THE HISTORY OF THE ISLE. 55

yeares) or elfe, wanting the good bargains they were wont to buy from men-of-war, who alfo vended our commodityes at very high prices ; and readie money was eafy to be had for all things. Now peace and law hath beggared us all, fo that wiihin my memorie many of the gentlemen and almoft all the yeomanry are undone."

A few years later, about 1635, good old Fuller remarks that u the Ifle of Wight hath no monks, lawyers, nor foxes !" But then he wittily adds, that the faying " hath more of mirth than truth in it!" Captain Grofe obferves, at a later period, refpedl:- ing this ielf-fame proverb, that " it was very improbable there fhould be a fertile, healthy, and pleafant fpot without monks — a rich place without lawyers — and a country abounding with lambs and poultry of every kind without foxes!"

But all thefe witticifms about lawyers and monks, like moft popular witticifms, are referable to a far earlier date than the feventeenth century.

Afluredly there is fufficient proof in the anecdote of the attorney to prove Sir George Carey's promptitude.

Sir John Oglander, on the contrary, appears in a weak pofition when he confounds the buftle of war and its over- demands, with the activity of peace and its over-fupplies- There can be little doubt that the Ifle of Wight grew in pro- fperity, in common with the reft of England, through that wonderful firft half of the feventeenth century, when the people, who had hereditarily refted content upon the laft national liberties accorded through the Reformation, were bracing themfelves together to reftrain the exceffive powers of the Stuart kings. During the time of the Plantagenets, the people had a fort of rough power to control the king by reafon of the fa6l that, to a certain degree, the foldier and the tax-payer were one and the fame man. But the advance of

56 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

civilifation, which has always tended to divide labour, was in England, and in the feventeenth century, (as generally over the face of Weftern Europe,) feparating the tiller of the foil from the foldier. Regular armies were drifting into fliape, and the yeoman was taking alarm as he faw the gradual concretion of a new power, which had no intereft in the State beyond the unfelfifh one of nationality, and whofe fervice was devoted rather to the princes than to the people.

At the commencement of the outbreak between Court and Commons, Jerome, Earl of Portland, was Captain of the ifle. It was his misfortune, as it was the miftake of many Cavaliers, during that terrible fight, to pufh forward the diftinftive faults of the Cavalier as his peculiar difpofitions, and fimply becaufe thofe faults broadly protefted againft the aufterities held in theory, if not always put into practice by the Puritans, and upon which the oppofite party naturally fought to throw ridicule. Portland at once threw himfelf into the moft de- monftrative form of the Cavalier, and fo evidently, that the courtly Clarendon, mentioning the Earl in his hiftory, concedes this much of blame, that he fpeaks of " his extraordinary vivacity."

Thofe of the iflanders who held to the Puritan theory were outraged by the Earl's public conduit, and ultimately he was removed from the wardenfliip. Clarendon, who is perhaps one of the faireft and moft liberal of the Cavaliers who have written concerning the firft parliamentary rebellion fays : — " The Parliament threatened the Earl of Portland that they would remove him from his charge and government of the Ifle of Wight (which laft they did de fatto, by committing him to prifon without afligning a caufe), and to that purpofe, objected to all the a<5ts of good-fellowfhip, all the wafte of powder, and all the wafte of wine in the drinking of healths, and other afts

THE HISTORY OF THE ISLE. 57

of jollity, which ever he had been at, in his government, from the firft hour of his entering upon it."

But while many of the iflanders applauded the removal of the vivacious Earl, others led by the gentry, with the greater part of whom cavalierfhip was a pofitsve necefficy, petitioned for his reftoration to his poft. At the fame time a declaration of adhefion to, and faith in the Parliament, was forwarded.

But party fpirit was rapidly nfiiig far above compromife. Mofes Reed, Mayor of Newport, declared firmly in favour of the Parliament, and boldly afierted that Newport was not fafe while the Caftle of Carifbrook, frowning above the town, remained in the poffeffion of Colonel Brett and the Countefs of Portland. This Colonel had been appointed commandant of the garrifon by the King himfelf, while the Countefs, calculating upon the intereft ftill fhown in her hufband by thofe of the iflanders who had figned the petition for the reftoration to his poft as Captain of the ifle, had, inftead of quitting Wight, taken refuge, together with her five children, in Carifbrook ftrong- hold. With the peerefs, in this military fandtuary, were her hufband's brother and fifter.

And now the fanguinary troubles of the ifle began. Wight was to play its part in the tragedy which ended in that final ghaftly fcene outfide Whitehall.

The Commons were antagoniftic to any fhape of royalty, and having ifiued orders to the captains of all {hips lying in the Medina to give the mayor full affiftance, Mofes Reed placed himfelf at the head of the Newport militia, and with his fmall force of landfmen, aided by about four hundred marine rather than naval auxiliaries, abfolutely he marched upon the caftle.

The events of that day afford a chapter in the hiftory of the Ifle of Wight which is moft ftimulating. Warfare has

58 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

always brought out examples of the utmoft female courage and heroifm. The hiftory of the Ifle of Wight is not deftitute of a heroine. She was the felf-imprifoned Countefs of Portland, who appears to have put the paft-named Colonel Brett com- pletely in the fhade.

The Mayor, fummoning the caftle to furrender, flie advanced to parley. The condition of ftraits within the caftle is a ftriking example of the utter unfitnefs of Brett for the com- mand he held, and which he appears finally to have made illuftrious by the refignation of his pofition to a gueft ; for the caftle was provifioned for only three days, while it was moft infufficiently garrifoned. No doubt fuch a fhort refiftance might have been offered by the garrifon as would have led to much lofs on the popular fide, but defeat was inevitable. It was fimply a queftion of time.

The Countefs advanced to the befiegers with an undaunted courage, a burning fufee in her hand, and demanded honourable terms as the bafis of furrender, declaring that if they were refufed fhe would defend the caftle to the utmoft, and would herfelf fire the firft cannon.

There is no mention whatever made of the Colonel through- out thefe high proceedings. It is only charitable to fuppofe that he lay abed with a dire ficknefs.

No doubt Mofes Reed was heartily glad to obtain pofleffion under any circumftances which did not entail bloodfhed. A compromife was at once effected, and not only was the caftle given up, but the Countefs ftipulated that fhe fhould remain within it until the Commons had been confulted upon the queftion of her ultimate difpofal. To be able to bring your enemy to terms, and then fearleflly to truft him, proves either that the limit of courage has been reached, or the borders of foolhardinefs crofted.

THE HISTORY OF THE ISLE. 59

In the caftle the Countefs remained a fhort fpace, when a parliamentary order arrived dire&ing her expulfion from the ifland. And it is faid that the poor woman had to take refuge in the charity of a few friendly feamen for the means of com- pleting the flight of herfelf and family. She was quite deftitute of means. It is fuch touches of humanity as thefe which make the hiftory of misfortune not only endurable, but pofitively appetifing.

The pofleffion of Carifbrook was foon followed by the feizure of every fort in the ifle. The Commons followed up thefe adls by the advance to the poft of governor of the Earl of Pembroke. This nobleman, neither unpopular on one fide nor the other, was very cordially welcomed by gentry and yeomen upon his landing at Cowes.

And now there can be little doubt that Wight would have taken no further part in the rebellion had not the unfortunate Stuart, whofe judgment always appears to have turned him upon the wrong path, been mad enough to feek refuge in the ifle — as virtual a felf-imprifonment as ever was accomplished, for a dozen coafting veflels could have effectively prevented any attempt at efcape.

Jefle, in his remarkable "Court of the Stuarts," endeavours to (how that this movement on the part of the King was effedled by the craft of Cromwell. But a rational inveftigation leads one to the inevitable conclufion, that if Cromwell could fo fway the actions of Charles as to induce him to go into voluntary imprifonment, the Protestor was abler than his beft friend has endeavoured to prove him — the Stuart feebler than hisworft enemy has painted that King.

The tale of Charles's imprifonment in the ifland is better told in the hiftory of Carifbrook Caftle, of which it forms part, than here.

60 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

With the feizure of Charles and his removal to Hurft Caftle, Carifbrook dies out of the hiftory of England, as from that time forth caftles for the moft part became either mere refidences or ruins.

From the date of the fall of Charles I., the wardens of Wight alighted upon peaceful times. William Sydenham was appointed in 1644, and after a reign of fixtecn years the wardenfhip became once again ariftocratic in the perfon of a nobleman with a very plebeian name, Lord Culpepper. But iflanders are iflanders all the world over, and are unwilling to bear oppreffion, if oppofition w'll overcome it. The Lord was fo overbearing in manner, or at beft the infulars found him fo, that an appeal was made for his removal — a requefr. Charles II., with characleriftic careleffhefs, completely overlooked. However, Culpepper (bowed himfelf fufficiently civil to refign. He was fucceeded by Admiral Sir Robert Holmes, who had beaten the Dutch at a time when to gain a victory over the Dutch was the neareft way to Englifti hearts. The iflanders welcomed this gallant gentleman heartily. He went into the ifland to make it the land of his adoption. There he remained through more than a quarter of a century, and there, at Yarmouth, the good gentleman lies buried. He died in 1692, and was followed by an unpopular nobleman. Indeed, the peerage does not at any time appear to have fucceeded in the wardenfhip. The new arrival was Lord Cutts, an appointee of William III. Being General of the Forces in Ireland, he was an abfentee after a very fhort refidence. The fadl: in no way enhances the fame of this warden that he became more popular after he left the ifland than when in it.

Dying in 1796, he was fucceeded by Charles, Marquis of Winchefter, afterwards Duke of Bolton. Of this nobleman the iflanders never appear to have had a chance of judging, for

THE HISTORY OF THE ISLE. 6l

he was an abfentee, and in his time the firft appointment of a Lieutenant-Governor was made. The gentleman upon whom this honour was conferred was a Colonel Morgan, who received twenty {hillings a day.

And now the governorftiip of the ifland changed hands with remarkable rapidity. Between 1/07 and 1745 there were eight appointments, moftly ariftocratic. The Marquis of Winchefter being removed, General Webb was forwarded in his place, to be fucceeded in five years by a diftinguifhed foldier and ftatefman, William, Lord Cadogan. He was followed by Charles, Duke of Bolton, fon of a former governor, and who was difmifled from all his public offices in 1733. The warden- (hip appears now to have remained permanently in ariftocratic hands. John Vifcount Lymington refigned in 1742, to be fucceeded by the Duke of Bolton — once more in favour, and reftored, amongft other attentions, to the wardenfhip of the ifland. The Duke, however, foon refigned, to be fucceeded by another re-appointee, the Earl of Portfmouth.

He was fucceeded, in 1764, by Thomas, Lord Holmes, who was followed by a commoner, Hans Stanley. But by this time a change of adminiftration affe&ed the wardenfhip of the ifland. Two years after the appointment, Stanley was removed, and then it reverted once more to the peerage and the Bolton dukedom, in the perfon of Harry, Duke of Bolton. Four years, and the Duke was pufhed on one fide in favour of Hans Stanley, whofe party was again in power, and who gave the new governor a life-grant. It lafted no longer than an adminiftration of that period ; for, Stanley dying, the Duke of Bolton, once more, after an interval of two years, carried the day. And it will be remarked throughout the-fe rapid changes how very little the comfort or requirements of the iflanders formed items of confideration in the acT: of

62 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

appointment. After feven years, the Duke dying, the wardenfhip pafled into the hands of one, who, though not a Duke of Bolton — being in fact the Right Honourable Thomas Orde — attained afterwards to that title.

Lord Malmefbury was the firft governor of the prefent century, and with him the wardenfhip ceafed. And what, it may be afked, was the bafis of all thefe appointments and re-appointments ? The anfwer is fimple enough. The place was worth ^1,500 annually, and there was nothing, or next to nothing to do. A very fortunate thing for the iflanders it was that the poft called for no work, or it would have been ftrangely accompliftied.

Through that entire century of frequent changes in the governorfhip, there was only one appointment of a loyal and patriotic character. It may be noted in a line — not many before the prefent — that it was faid, " the Duke of Bolton carried the day after an interval of two years." It was during thofe two years the ifle was under the control of its one really patriotic and local governor. For two years the warden was the Right Honourable Sir Richard Worfley, whofe name is well and honourably known in the ifland.

The Worfleys had, through many generations, the family feat near Godfhiil. This village is one of the moft pi&urefque in the ifle, and one of the ancient parifhes that exifted before the compilation of Domefday Book. It contains one of the fix churches given by William Fitz-Ofborn to the Abbey of Lyra. The church, which is of Saxon architecture, (lands on a fteep hill.

A wild, yet not uncommon, tradition is told to account for the elevated fituation of Godfhiil Church. The foundation was laid at the foot of the hill, and the men began to build there; but the next morning, on returning to their

THE HISTORY OF THE ISLE. 02

tj

labours, they found that all the {tones and other materials had been removed during the night, and placed at the top of the hill. They recommenced their woik below, ftill the next day all was gone. And this continued until they took the hint, built upon the fpot indicated to them by invisible hands, and by fo doing added much to the beauty of the fcene.

Its elevated fituation, however, has more than once expofed the church to danger. In January, 1778, it was {truck by

GODSHILL.

lightning, which fo injured the old building, that a portion fell in the following year.

In its tower are five bells and a clock. It contains many curious monuments, and fome modern ones to the memory of the Worfleys. It is a vicarage, in the gift of Queen's College, Oxford, and joined to the rectory of Niton.

Appuldurcombe, the home of thofe worthies of the ifland,

64 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

the Worfleys, is ufually derived from the Britifh T put dur y cwm — " the lake in the hollow" — but the correct etymology is evidently Apuldre-combe, the valley of apple-trees.

A comparatively old account of Appuldurcombe fays : — "The manfion itfelf, which ftands on the fite of a very old manor-houfe, is comparatively modern, having been begun in 1710 by Sir Robert Worfley (who left it in a very incomplete ftate), and finifhed by his grandfon many years after. Here was written the hiftory of the ifland, to which we have elfewhere referred. This book, which bears the name of Sir Richard, was in fact the production of three fucceffive genera- tions of the Worfleys. It was commenced by Sir Robert, who died in 1747 ; continued by his fon, Sir Thomas; and finifhed and publifhed by his grandfon, Sir Richard, in 1781. The love of their native place, and the defire of illuftrating it, laudably defcended from father to fon.

" The houfe of Appuldurcombe contains a choice aflemblage of beautiful objects of art and antiquity to intereft the tourift. There is a large collection of paintings, drawings, ftatues, and baffi-relievi. Some of the pictures, particularly the hiftorical portraits, were in the old manor-houfe for many generations, and were prefented to the Worfleys by the princes and great perfonages they reprefent.

" The fculptures and drawings were collected by Sir Richard, the laft baronet, who, in the courfe of the years 1785-86 and '87, made an extenfive tour through Italy, Greece, Egypt, and Turkey, and took with him able artifts, who made the drawings and views of the moft interefling places under his own infpe&ion."

The glory of the houfe has now departed ; yet, even in its denuded condition, it claims the tourift's admiration, from the beauty of its extenfive grounds and the ftatelinefs of the large

THE HISTORY OF THE ISLE. 65

Corinthian pile, with its proje&ing wings, which crowns the head of the green and ample (lope.

Wyndham faid of this place : — " It is fituated at fome diftance from the road, within the park, and, being built from the quarries of Portland, and unincumbered with adjoining offices, offers a magnificent objecl: to the high road and to the hills above it, particularly when the rays of the fun are reflected from its beautiful ftone."

Long after him, Knight remarked : — " The park is very famous, and it deferves its celebrity. It is very extenfive for the ifland ; the ground is confiderably diverfified, and there are noble views over the wide glades. Oak, elm, and beech-trees of {lately fize abound, and the plantations are well arranged. The park arid the houfe are, in Ihort, on a correfponding ftyle of grandeur."

To return to the hiftory of the wardens of the ifland. With the life of the Lord Malmefbury expired what of feparate exiftence from Hampfhire the ifle ftill poflefled. It merged into the municipal fway of a more powerful neighbour, an example of that modern policy which tends to breadth of control as in an earlier age it was an admirable example of the feudal form of government which diftinguiftied its firft Norman mafters.

It became, what it remains, the garden ground, the plefaunce, the convalefcent hofpital of London and South- Eaftern England — a little fpot, which after having fuffered more for its fize than any other in England, during the wars between Church and State, and State and Commons, now finds its million to be the aiTuagement of fuffering and the endeavour to reftore that health which has been injured by anxiety and the unhealthinefs of town life. The Ifle of Wight is a little gem fet in the fouthern Englifh fea.

K

Ryde.

HE approach to Ryde is perhaps the moft delightful that the ifland affords — for Cowes appears broken, Brading is {hut in, Yar- mouth is round a corner, and Ventnor has no pier.

Riling from the more, the town looks as though fpread to be looked at, while the framing of foliage on right and left is very pidlurefque. Away to the weft one can fee the towers of Ofborne, half neftling in woods, while to the eaft the more melves away towards Brading.

A long, broad, handfome pier is this of Ryde, together with a tramway, well-managed and well-appointed, but the feating accommodation on the pier itfelf is of a frrangely primitive kind, while the complicated financial arrangements at the turnftile are calculated equally to ftir up one's aftonimment and arithmetic.

Ryde is the bafe line whence the tourifts iflue to conquer a

RYDE. 67

knowledge of the beauties of the ifland — and indeed, by very judicious management we may fweep over the whole of the north, eaft, fouth, and centre of the ifland, and yet fleep every night in Ryde itfelf — a rational proceeding, perhaps, when we may be called fuddenly away, but one which is injudicious when time is wholly one's own. There is nothing more delightful than rifking accommodation, and experimenting upon the fare and" wine of the country" — as Queen A4ary's hufband, Philip of Spain, called the huge goblet of beer offered him when he landed in England, and which he fuppofed it was imperative he ihould drink off.

It is an excitement to reft at a wonderfully difcovered little rural inn — though certainly, in the Ifle of Wight, the inhabi- tants cannot be condemned on the fcore of village ale-houfes, for they do not appear to exift to any extent.

The hotels at Ryde are not any worfe than at o.her watering-places, while indeed, they are faid to be a little more confiderate towards vifitors than elfewhere. Ryde, how- ever, is a colony of lodging-houfes, and in the feafon it is one that feldom needs to call for fettlers. In Auguft, when the butterfly yachts fwarm to Ryde, it is, indeed, difficult to find a place in which to lay the weary head. And yet, in fpite of this wonderful popularity, of this influx of vifitors, even in Ryde very primitive people are to be found. Not three years fince, a benighted couple of tourifts, houfelefs, bedlefs, and forlorn, were taken in by fome honeft people who knew nothing of lodgers, and who having bedded and breakfafted them for a week, did actually charge three fhiilings for the accommoda- tion, and fixpence a-piece for each meal.

Ryde has felt the bleffings of peace as thoroughly as any part of the United Kingdom. Immediately after the downfall of Napoleon, the Ifle of Wight — which, during the long wars

68 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

between France and England, never could be profperous in confequence of its pofition, and the fuccefs which might attend a landing — began to grow rapidly. In 1801 — for we are going to weary our readers with a few, a very few figures — the population was under a thoufand fouls. In 1821, half-a-dozen years after the fall of the great Corfican, it had rifen to nearly three thoufand. In this year of grace (1868) the town owns to nearly ten thoufand inhabitants in two thoufand houfes, exclufiveof vifitors.

Of courfe Ryde has a fort of municipality, but it is not burdened with a mayor. The Board of Commiffioners con- fifts of twenty-feven members, who go out once a year. Each commiffioner muft be worth £700, or be rated at not lefs than £20 per annum.

Thefe commiffioners lay out about £2,000 a year on the town, while the poor rate, fome few years fince, produced £1,500. Two or three more figures and we will leave them. The peace of the town is looked after by fix conftables and one fergeant, all of whom are remarkable for wearing the moft frightful hats ever invented. Vifitors are days before they grow accuftomed to this head-covering, which is worn by individuals who apparently have a very eafy time of it ; for if the Ifle of Wight in wild times has had to fuffer, and fuffer very feverely, now that comparative peace has fallen upon Europe, the iflet has its advantages — for your thieves, vagrants, gipfies, and other nomads love not a fpot whence they can only efcape by two or three gates. No man can hide in Wight ; Charles Stuart, amongft others, made that difcovery ; and to efcape from the place a fugitive muft either hire a private boat, or endeavour to fly by one of the gates — which are three — Ryde, Cowes, and Yarmouth. All men going to or from the ifland pafs by one of thefe points.

RYDE. 69

The confequence is that the lower thieving and begging fraternity, not being able to tramp into the land after their ordinary fafliion, and the police keeping a very clofe watch upon the points of difembarkation, the ifle is remarkably free from the plague of mendicity. And thus it is that you may walk from one end to the other and not meet a beggar: a great improvement upon all Kent, which county, during Auguft, September, and O&ober, owing to the hop-picking vifitors, and the begging traditions which have fwept down from the palmy days of Canterbury — then the metropolis of the Anglo- Roman Church — is fo cffenfive, if not even dangerous, that ladies are virtually debarred from walking beyond the bound- aries of the towns.

" Have you any gipfies in the ifle ?" we afked, at Newport.

u Well, sir," was the anfwer, " gipfies have come, but fomehow they have gone away again, almoft as foon as they got here."

This is of courfe the cafe, although the Zingari muft know how much fine camping ground there is in the ifle. The gipfy is incapable of refting in a land in which he knows his foot is limited to a poor ftretch of under eight leagues. He muft be able to walk off acrofs two or three hundred miles, or he feels as though in a prifon. Again, the Zingari are certainly given to thieving, and, as we have faid, nature has aided the

police fo much in Wight, that in a word, the gipfies are

of a mind with the beggars and the thieves, and give the place a wide berth.

The polce, therefore, have to confine their attention to occafional arrivals of the fwell-mob (whofetdete&ionatdefiance), and the fettlement of occafional difputes of flymen and boat- men with thofe of their tourift cuftomers who cannot fubmit to pay for the feafon without a little violent proteft.

7O THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

From Ryde coaches pour out upon the iflancl, although the rail, which is now open to Ventnor, has overtaken and over- thrown many of thofe horfed machines. It is alfo from Ryde that boats ftart for what may be called the circumnavigation or the ifland — a fix hours' voyage.

That libraries, news-rooms, and bazaars abound in Ryde may be taken for granted. Nay, the town even boafts of a theatre, the ufual wretched, bankrupt, out-at-elbows, and dif- reputable temple one finds nine times out of ten at every fea- fide refort. It was here that Edmund Kean and the people of Ryde had a difference. It was a fomething in his domeftic arrangements which brought him into difcredit, and confound- ing the man and the a£tor, by fome means Edmund got hifled, the refult being that the tragedian, who was playing Richard III., went the extreme length of intimating that his opinion of the people of Ryde was that they were donkeys.

No, the Theatre Royal Ryde is not a comfortable building. People will not go to it — in faft, people go out of town to efcape from theatres. Poffibly it would be quite judicious conduit on the part of the inhabitants of fea-fide towns to buy up the theatres and fell them for rubbifli; fuch action would make the towns quite refpedable.

The true theatre of the Ifle of Wight is the theatre of nature. What need of a canvas garden when every fquare yard of the ifland is a feries of lefTons in botany ? What need of a pafteboard caftle, when there is wonderful Carifbrook to wander over ? The ifle is its own theatre, and laughs at that poor little rival perched on the hill, and puftiing forward its bald face and haggard walls like fome old coquette who will not underftand that fhe is paffee.

However, we muft not forget that here Mrs. Jordan, the celebrated adtrefs of George IV. 's days, made her laft appear-

RYDE.

ance in public — a great woman for fo fmall a ftage. She played on her way to France, feeking in that land, as many before her and fince, the health which had abandoned her in England. With Mrs. Jordan's final appearance the Ryde theatre drifted into its prefent condition, in which it is only too likely to remain.

The pier, the chief charm of Ryde, is the natural refult of the lhallownefs of the Ryde waters. Previous to its erection a ftiort jetty was the only means of landing offered by Ryde to its vifitors, who, did they arrive at low water, had at leaft the charm of choice as to one of two ways of reaching the fhore, for at low tide the jetty was of*no ufe. The option lay between going to ftiore in a cart, drawn by a fteady old horfe, or taking a fedan (the more ariftocratic mode), borne by a couple of able-bodied amphibious bipeds. Each mode had its ad- vantages and difadvantages. In the firft cafe you felt that you and your luggage would not get an impromptu bath ; on the other hand the fedan was dignified and fele<£t. But there was a great drawback in the fear that one or other of the marine runners might ftumble, when, if the patient did not plunge violently forward into the fea, it would be becaufe he obtained that refrefhment on his back.

The pier began to grow in 1813, but before it had reached its prefent ftretch, which is nearly half-a-mile, at the very flart the conftru&ion engulfed 2,400 (hares at ^50 a fhare — j£i 20,000.

The look-out from the head of the pier is delightfully varied. In fhore are the reclining terraces of houfes, white being the prevailing colour, the ifland ftretching away on each fide in wooded hills, capped at one point by the towers of Ofborne, at another by the Nab Light. Away in front lies Spithead, generally with a frowning man-of-war motionlefs and gigantic

72 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

in the mid-way. Beyond is Portfmouth Harbour, looking much like a Dutch town j and farther ftill the blue line of Hampfhire hills.

It was twenty years from the date of the completion of the pier before the efplanade was commenced (1856). However, modern engineers get through their work quickly, and the wall was foon completed. But it appears never to have become very popular, perhaps becaufe it is fo utterly wanting in fliade. However, it gave a facing to the lower portions of the town, and it remains of great ufe as an example of general improve- ment.

To the left of the pier — over this efplanade, and looking towards the town — is the duver, or dovor. It was once a ftretch of fand ; it is now a colony of houfes, built for the greater part within the memory of forre fcarcely more than middle-aged. Many can prattle over their crockery mugs of beer of the ghaftly hiftory with which it is connected.

Here, upon this fpot, this dovor, were buried fcores upon fcores of thofe who died in the Royal George^ when that gallant fhip went down. The veflel was outward bound, her complement on board, the decks crowded with vifitors, many of them women taking leave of the men.

Here is the tale of the Royal George.

Previous to failing, it was deemed neceffary to examine the fhip's bottom ; and for that purpofe {he was laid on her fide. This was done early in the morning of a fine day. The Admiral was writing in his cabin, and moft of the people were between decks, when about 3 o'clock, p.m., an unexpected fquall of wind threw her fo much en her broadfide that the flag at her maft-head dipped in the water; (he then rolled over on the other fide, her yard arms touching the fea; after which fhe righted, and fank in nearly an upright pofition.

RYDE. 73

A victualling veflel was alongfide, which was fwallowed up in the whirlpool caufed by the finking of fo vaft a body. Other fmall craft in the vicinity were much endangered, but efcaped.

The fhip was crowded with people from the fhore, who were taking leave of their relatives and friends. It was eftimated that three hundred vifitors, including the wives and children of the failors, were on board. The crew amounted to nearly nine hundred. The boats of the fleet faved many who had been on deck ; but the admiral, with feveral officers, and the greater part of the men who were below, fank with the vefTel. Only three hundred were refcued. It was impoffible to afcertain the exad-l number of fouls on board at the time of the cataftrophe, but it was calculated that nearly one thoufand individuals were hurried into eternity.

Admiral Kempenfeldt was nearly feventy years of age, and was widely lamented. He was confidered one of the firft amongft naval officers for courage, judgment, nautical fkill, and humanity.

The Royal George had had more flags hoifted in her than any other (hip in the navy. She had been the flag-fhip of our greateft commanders, and on the moft important occafions. She alfo carried heavier metal and taller mafts than any other veflel in the fervice.

The weather was fcarcely to be called frem. No fufpicion of danger exifted. All that ever can be known is, that there muft have been fome bad feamanfhip fomewhere, that the fliip went over, and that the bufy naval neft was in a moment a feething mafs of human beings hopeleflly battling for life.

A few moments, and the pain of the fufferers part, that of the furvivors began. The currents, combining with the prevalent winds, fwept many fcores of the bodies into the bay of

L

74 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

Ryde. The Tea cart up her dead, and the Ryde people came down and buried them in heaps — in great heaps that marked the end of the tragedy. Readers will afk : "What, were thefe poor creatures buried like the bodies of animals, where they were found ? " Yes. The prefent generation would be aftonifhed to hear at comparatively how recent a date the law in no way provided for the interment of the bodies of poor drowned mariners caft upon the inhofpitable fhore. When the Royal Charter broke up, great was the tendernefs difplayed by the minifter of the parifh upon part of whofe fhore the dead were caft, and Charles Dickens has immortalifed that Chriftian work. It was different at the time of the going down of the Royal George. The dead were caft upon Ryde beach, and buried where they were found.

Mrs. Robinfon (Perdita) in her " Memoirs " has a tale very fimilar to that of Ryde dovor. She herfelf being at Brighton, which was then a fafhionable watering-place, faw the body of a dead mariner lay upon the Brighton beach through two whole fummer days. It was nobody's bufinefs to bury the unknown, it lay with open eyes ftaring at the heartlefs world ; and, finally, it was mainly by her exertions and expenditure that the remains of the poor mariner were laid in the ground.

And what became of the bones of the broad-chefted men who had manned the Royal George — of them and their belongings who had come to take leave of the lads who were never to furl fail again?

"Why, fir," fays the long-fhoreman, who is afked within found of the fummer waves, and over a white-and-blue mug of houfehold ale — <lWhy, I've feen great lumps of bones dug up when they were making them foundations, over and over again, when I was a boy."

So thus it is. The men of the rare Royal George going,

RYDE. 75

ftrong and healthy, out of port, to fweep the enemies of England from the feas are cheered, and hearty wifhes go with them. But the crew drowned, the dead thrown upon the more they oft failed from to defend, they are put in the ground a yard away from where the fea caft them up. And when the land is wanted, " great lumps of bones" are thrown up by the handy fpade. The hiftory of the Royal George is taken up again, 1839. In that year, Colonel C. W. Pafley, of the Royal Engineers, was employed by the Government to remove the obftru£r.ions which the ruins of this large fhip occafioned in the moft eligible part of the anchorage at Spithead.

Colonel Pafley's plan was to blow the huge mip to pie.ces with gunpowder. Cylinders of gunpowder were depofited by divers under the more expofed parts of the wreck, and then exploded by means of galvanic batteries.

Colonel Pafley commenced his operations in Auguft and concluded them in November. The quantity of powder confumed during the various experiments was 1 2,940 Ibs. Two feries of explofions (in Auguft and in September) took place, and Colonel Pafley ftates that altogether there were recovered from the wreck : " Twelve guns, five gun-carriages, one hundred beams and riders, or large fragments of them, exclufive of other timbers, planks, and copper, befides the cooking-place and boilers complete, the ftem, and great part of the bows on each fide of it, the two capftans, part of the main- maft, and all that remained of the foremaft of the Royal George."

The Town-hall of Ryde is rather a ufeful than an ornamental architectural effort. However, it coft ^5,000. Its right wing is devoted to the ufe of an inftitute and lecture rooms, its left wing to a market. The Town-hall proper confifts of two rooms, which can be thrown into one for feftive purpofes.

76 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

The great fa£l of Ryde being its yachting, the Yacht Club Houfe, weft of the pier, is an important building. Of courfe it has a fmall battery looking feaward, far more ufeful than Yarmouth Caflle j while its interior, being built for men who are generally London club-men, is very handfome and effective. The foundation-ftone was laid by the Prince Confort, in March, 1846, a year after the eftablifhment of the Royal Victoria Yacht Club, which entering upon exiftence in May, 1845, at once obtained a guarantee of continuous good patronage and fuccefs by an Admiralty warrant permitting the Club to bear the St. George's enfign. The Club now numbers about eighty yachts, having an aggregate of nearly ten thoufand tons. The entrance fee is five guineas, a fimilar fum being the yearly fubfcription. It is to this Club that Ryde owes the preftige of its annual regatta, which attracts all Englifh yachtfmen who refpecl: themfelves, and many yachting foreigners, to Ryde in Auguft. The regatta is of courfe exclufive, and therefore a balance is judicioufly obtained by holding a few weeks later in the year a fecond regatta, efpecially for the encouragement of the Ryde boatmen. Thefe are good feamen, by the way, but their efforts to uphold a protective tariff certainly tends not to the increafe of their earnings. Boats lie idly toiling on the mallow water which might be at work, pleafantly dotting the fcene, could but the ftubborn boatmen fit down and calculate on a penny flate the comparative advantages of having a fingle crown cuftomer, or ten two-milling patrons.

Ryde has ftriven to be perfect in many ways. It poffeffes an arcade, the Royal Victoria. The Ifle of Wight has alfo its Philofophical and Scientific Society, the head-quarters being at Ryde, which is reprefented by a very refpe&able collection of the antiquities and natural hiftory of the ifland. However, it muft -be .admitted that the peculiarity of all mufeums not

RYDE. 77

metropolitan — and even fome of thefe do not efcape — is to tend towards mildew, duft, and difarrangement, with ftartling rapidity. The Society numbers a hundred members. The Prince Confort, who was at all times more than willing to advance the interefts of the little ifle which the Oueen made, and ftill makes, her home during the greater part of the year, was one of the moft influential members of the aflbciation.

Here is the report of the annual excurfion of this Society, for the year of grace 1868. "The annual excurfion took place on Wednefday (the 2nd of September). The members aflembled at the Old Town-hall of the ancient borough of Newtown, formerly Francheville, at half-paft twelve, whence they proceeded to vifit the extenfive oyfter beds in the Clamerkin Lake, where, through the kindnefs of Sir John Simeon, Bart., the procefs of raifing oyfters was excellently explained by the chief overfeer. The party on its return to Newtown perambulated, under the direction of the Rev. E. Kell, F.S.A., the boundaries of the ancient town, which was of a rect- angular form, 500 yards long and 150 broad. The ftreets parallel to each other were Gold-ftreet and High-ftreet, inter- fe&ed at right angles by Broad-ftreet, Church-ftreet, and Bowling-green-ftreet. The ftreet on the fouth was diftin&ly marked by a hedge- row, but had fallen into entire difufe. The other ftreets are now either roads or green lanes. About twelve cottages are fprinkled over the fite of the ancient town. A plan of the town, which is girt on two of its fides by the Newtown Clamerkin Lake, was explained by Mr. Kell. The members then aflembled at Swainftone, the beautiful feat of Sir John Simeon, and partook of a fubftantial lunch, after which Mr. Benjamin Barrow, of Ryde, the prefident of the fociety, propofed the healths of Sir John and Lady Simeon, with thanks for their hofpitable entertainment, which was

78 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

moft cordially proffered. Sir John Simeon, in refponding, exprefled in the courfe of his remarks his fatisfa&ion at the propofed eftablifhment of an Ifland Mufeum at Carifbrook Caftle. The company, about thirty, then adjourned to the capacious hall, where a paper was read by the Rev. E. Kell, on the Roman origin of Newtown. Sir John Simeon exhibited and explained various ancient charters of the borough, of Edward II., Queen Elizabeth, and other monarchs, granting fpecial rights and privileges to Newtown. He (bowed a beautiful map of the family eftate executed in the time of Charles I., and other interefting documents connected with the ancient borough. The exceeding finenefs of the day con- tributed not a little to the enjoyment of this very fuccefsful excurfion of the fociety."

Ryde is exceptionally healthy, even for the glorious Ifle of Wight, which is the more remarkable becaufe in all proba- bility the beach, from its flatnefs, is lefs healthy than that or any other fea-fide colony in the ifland. We have no doubt Dr. Farr would attribute this enviable condition of things to the purity of the water fupply, a condition which it appears contributes far more to health than the removal of refufe and the purity of the atmofphere. The Ryde waterworks are at the foot of Afhey Down, four miles from Ryde, the great plateau whofe furface fupplies the water demand. The municipal determination to obtain good water, a determination no doubt founded on the knowledge that the badnefs of the water has helped to ruin many a fea-fide place — Herne Bay for example, where the wafhing water has been often drained through a towel before the confcientious vifitor could warn in it — was not ftaggered by the expenfe. The commiffioners appear to have forefeen that a good water fupply would prove a good inveftment in the fulnefs of time. The anticipation has

RYDE. 79

been realifed. Thefe works, for fo fmall a town, coft a large fum, ^22,500 — nearly fifty {hillings per head for all Ryde. The refervoir is two hundred and fifty feet above low water mark.

Ryde is plentifully provided with places of worfhip. There are three Church of England chapelries in the town, for the parifti church is ftill at Newchurch, where it flood when Ryde was reprefented by two or three fifhermen. Mr. Davenport Adams, fpeaking of thefe in his voluminous guide-book to the ifle, fays, "The oldeft of thefe chapels is St. Thomas's," whofe ufeful fteeple affords a confpicuous landmark, " the uglieft is St. James's," while " the lateft and handfomeft is the Church of the Holy Trinity."

The Romanifts have a very handfome chapel dedicated to St. Mary, in the High Street. The choir is remarkably good — indeed its choral fervices form an item in the attractions of Ryde. Quite a fafhionable throng pours out at the completion of a fummer afternoon's fervice.

In Doomfday Book, Ryde is called La Rye, or La Ruhe. It was burnt down more than once, and was razed by the French in the reign of Edward II. In later times it was one of the centres of the watch and ward of the ifle, and one of the three favoured ports to which all communication with the main land was reftri&ed. It was only towards the clofe of the laft century that the town began to look up. It was fome years before this time, in 1753, that Fielding, then dying, refted at Ryde, when leaving England for the laft time. " Between the fea and the fhore," he gaily writes, " there was at low water an impaflable gulf, if I may fo call it, of deep mud, which could neither be traverfed by walking nor fwimming ; fo that, for one-half of the twenty-four hours, Ryde was inac- ceflible by friend or foe. I was, therefore, rowed in a fmall

80 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

boat as near the more as poffible, and then taken up by two failors, who waded with me through the mud in a chair, and at laft placed me on dry land." Some time after Fielding's death the wherries came in as far as they could, and were met by a horfe and cart, which took out the pafTengers and carried them through the mud and water to the beach.

Fielding tells how he found only one butcher in the town, " but he was a very good one, and killed all forts of meat in feafon ; beef two or three times a year, and mutton all the year round."

" The fituation of the town," he exclaims, " is moft de- lightful, and is the moft pleafant fpot in the whole ifland. It is true it wants the advantage of that beautiful river which leads from Newport to Cowes ; but the profpe£t here extending to the fea, and taking in Portfmouth, Spithead, and St. Helen's, would be more than a recompenfe for the lofs of the Thames itfelf, even in the moft delightful parts of Berkfhire and Buck- inghamfhire." Farther on he adds : "This pleafant village is fituated on a gentle afcent from the water, whence it affords that charming profpe6t I have above defcribed. Its foil is a gravel, which, afTociated with its declivity, preferves it always fo dry, that immediately after the moft violent rain a fine lady may walk without wetting her filken fhoes. The fertility of the place is apparent from its extraordinary verdure, and it is fo fhaded with large and flourifhing elms that its narrow lanes are a natural grove or walk, which in the regularity of its planta- tion vies with the power of art, and in its wanton exuberancy greatly exceeds it."

The environs of Ryde are as paftoral as Goldfmith's deferted village. Here is to be found no fublimity, no grandeur, but fmiling meadow land — land looking lovely in the funlight, wretched in the rain. The woody flopes dip to the inland valley,

RYDE.

8l

while every hedge-row is alive with ftarry flowers. As for the fine primrofes, we have already mentioned their fupremacy. "This ifland ought to be called Primrofe Ifland, if the nation of cowflips agree thereto," fays Keats. But fhall we confefs that to our ears the ifland lacks the fong of birds ? Whether it is that the iflanders have, from a miftaken policy, deftroyed them, or whether the once famous hawks of Culver thinned its feathered fongfters, Wight is not remarkable for tinging birds. Keats, Shelley, and many others have written in profe or fung in verfe of the ifland, but not one of the poets has a word to fay of its birds — the land, the fea, the clifF, and efpecially the flowers, having engaged their chief attention. Sings Shelley: —

" In a dell mid lawny hills, Which the wild {ea-murmur fills, And the light and fmell divine Of all flowers that breathe and fhine."

M

Brading.

RADING is a market town, four miles from Ryde, and double that diftance from New- port. The town may be defcribed as one long ftreet. The original grant ftri6tly enjoined that the weekly market day fhould be Wednefday, but by fome means the market is now held on a Monday.

The town is governed by a fenior and junior bailiff, chofen annually, a recorder, who holds office for life, and thirteen jurats. The common feal is encircled with the motto, u The Kyng's Towne of Bradynge." The earlieft exifting charter granted to Brading was engrofled in the reign of Edward VL It is, however, neceflary to ftate that this expreflly refers to earlier charters.

Brading poffefles an old Town Hall, over an old Market Houfe, neither of which is ufed. In the Market Houfe may be ftill feen a pair of ftocks, which, however, have not been in operation for a long time. In Brading are to be found fome of

BRADING. 83

the very oldeft houfes in the ifle, fo old that they retain evidences of the time when England was " merry England." Dotting the exterior of feveral are to be feen the rings once ufed upon feftival days to fupport the tapeftry decorations to which our forefathers were fo partial. Another evidence of the kind of fports and paftimes in which our anceftors delighted takes the fhape of an iron ring in the ground, marking the fpot where once upon a time bull-baiting attracted the king's lieges. In a lane at the bottom of the hill is the ruftic dwelling of Legh Richmond's celebrated " Young Cottager," whofe fimple grave may be found in the fouth-eaft corner of the old churchyard.

Brading lies at the bafe of the emerald-toned and lofty Brading Down, and is furrounded by the woods of N unwell. The great feature of the town is the Haven. Brading Haven, at high water, is an extenfive lake ; but at low water the mud banks, and the crawling Yar in its mid ft, form by no means a pleafant profpecl:. The haven covers more than 830 acres, and therefore it need not be faid that the level being fo very little below that of the neighbouring fertile land, the practical farmers and land owners of the diftricl: have always looked with regret upon fo large a tracT: remaining a wafte expanfe of mud. Many attempts have been made to reclaim it. So early as the time of Edward I. Sir William Ruflel, of Yaver- land, fnatched a little of the land from the grafp of the fea, and the firft Yar Bridge was erected. In 1562 another plot of land was recovered, and in 1594 a third. The chief attempt, however, was made by brave Sir Hugh Myddleton — him to whom we owe the New River, and the general healthinefs of the North Diftricl: of London. This hardy engineer was aided by Sir Bevis Thelwell, who gave ^2,000 for a grant Henry Gibbs had obtained from James I. Under Sir Hugh's

84 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

direction, an embankment acrofs the narrow mouth of the harbour was commenced in the December of 1620, and the works were carried on vigorously and fuccefsfully for two years, by which time they were completed. The fertile land was now cultivated, farm-houfes were to be feen dotting the land thus refcued from the fea, and roads were made. But at the expiration of eight years (1630), the fea broke through the embankment and fwept away all. From that time up to the prefent, no engineer has been bold enough to undertake banking out the fea from Brading Harbour. But if the plough has not again been fet to work over Brading Haven, modern thought and ingenuity have within the laft few years difcovered a means of turning it to moft valuable account. The ordinary agricultural farming cannot be applied, but oyfter-farming pays more per acre than the former; and experience leads thofe who have been aflbciated in the enterprife to the conclufion, that in a few years oyfter-farming in Brading Haven will be a very profitable investment. So far, all that has been done has been but tentative, and large expenfes have been incurred ; but at the laft meeting of the gentlemen interefted in this induftry, fufficient evidence was forthcoming to prove, that in a few years Brading Haven will be far more remunerative as an oyfter-farm than it could be made by any other means.

Thorne fpeaks very pleafantly of the queen's town of Brading : — " From the mouth of the harbour you fee a really noble lake, embayed between hills of moderate elevation, which are covered pretty thickly with trees, in many places down to the very edge of the water. Along the banks and on the fides of the hills are fcattered many neat houfes, and a church or two, and the head of the lake is furrourided by a lofty range of downs ; whilft the furface itfelf, of a deep azure hue, glitters with numerous glancing fails, and is alive with hundreds of

BRADING. 85

filver-winged fea-gulls. To one who has not feen, or can forget, a lake among the mountains, this will, if feen under favourable afpects, appear of almoft unfurpaflable beauty ; to every one it muft appear very beautiful. An hour or two mould be devoted to a fail upon it. The views from the furface are very varied ; thofe looking northward derive much beauty from the way in which the fea, with its (hips, and the diftant more, mingle with the lake. The view from the head of the harbour is, efpecially at fun-fet, eminently picturefque and ftriking. Clofe by the mouth is the old tower of St. Helen's Church. The church itfelf has long been deftroyed ; but the tower has been ftrengthened, and made to ferve as a fea- mark."

The Corporation of Brading ftill pays an annual fine, or fee- farm rent, into the Exchequer, amounting to four marks — £2 135. 4d. Their revenue is to a large extent derived from certain dues on (hops and trades, aflefled according to ancient charter.

Brading Church is fuppofed to have been erected foon after the Conqueft, but independently of its claims as an object of antiquity, it deferves notice from having been for many years the fcene of the paftoral labours of the late Rev. Legh Richmond. The admirers of that interefting author who vifit the ifland mould procure his cheap and elegant little hand- book to the fcenery, defcribed in the " Annals of the Poor," entitled, "The Landfcape Beauties of the Ifle of Wight."

Brading Church is confidered the oldeft in the ifland. It is chiefly tranfitionary Norman in ftyle. It confifts of a chancel, nave, and fide aides ; each with a fmall chapel at the end. The building exhibits fragments of architecture of almoft all the Gothic ftyles. The fmall chapel at the eaft end of the fouth aifle, beyond a fcreen, is the burial-place of

86 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

the Oglanders, thofe worthies of the ifle. The church is dedicated to St. Mary, and it retained until lately, fovereignty over the parifhes of Yaverland and Shanklin, which were compelled to bury their dead here. The church is diftinguifhed for its brafles, epitaphs, and weather-cock, which is a full- tailed barn-door fowl.

It was to an epitaph in this churchyard of Brading that Dr. Calcott, while on a vifit at St. John's, gave prominence, by fetting it to mufic in the form ot a glee, which has fince become houfehold. The epitaph, on a certain Mrs. Berry, whofe grave is near that of her hufband, is as follows : —

" Forgive, blert /hade, the tributary tear,

That mourns thy exit from a world like this ; Forgive the wiih that would have kept thee here, And ftay'd thy progrefs to the feats of blifs.

" No more confined to grov'ling fcenes of night —

No more a tenant pent in mortal clay ; Now fliould we rather hail thy glorious flight, And trace thy journey to the realms of day."

There is alfo another epitaph to the hufband : —

" It muft be fo — our father Adam's fall And difobedience brought this lot on all. All die in him, and hopelels fhould we be, Bleft Revelation, were it not for thee. Hail, glorious Gofpel! heavenly light, whereby We live in comfort and in comfort die ; And view in that bright world beyond the tomb A life of endlefs happinefs to come."

Neither copy of verfes is fufficiently poetic to juftify its popu- larity on its own merits. Of Mr. and Mrs. Berry nothing is known beyond the fa6t that the hufband was an excifeman.

Thefe epitaphs are afcribed to the pen of the Rev. W. Gill, once curate of Newchurch. All the evidence is uncertain beyond the fa<St that the firft is a plagiarifm of Mrs. Steele's lines on the death of the Rev. James Hervey.

BRADING. 87

A more touching epitaph is that by Legh Richmond, written upon Jane, the young cottager, whofe memory forms one of the paftoral chapters of the hiftory of Brading : —

" Ye who the power of God delight to trace, And mark with joy each monument of grace, Tread lightly o'er this grave as ye explore The flioit and fimple annals of the poor.

" A child repofes underneath this fod, A child to memory dear, and dear to GoJ ; Rejoice, but fhed the fympathetic tear — Jane, the Young Cottager, lies buried here."

A far more charming and poetic effufion, however, is the following, infcribed on the tomb of an infant: —

" This lovely bud, fo young, fo fair,

CalFd hence by early doom ; Juft come to fliow how fweet a flower In Paradife would bloom ! "

The brafles at Brading are alfo worth attention. Near the communion-table is to be found a brafs, once inlaid with filver, reprefenting a knight, his feet guarded by two dogs. The infcription is as follows : —

"$ic facet nobiti?" toir ^ofcanncs" C&crotoin atmijtcr. Uumbitortat. Con- nestabtrtarius Caa'tri be Porceatre. qui obiit . anno Domini mittcsimo quatmnges"10 quabra0° pnmo . die ultima menae «0ctoliris . anima tins rcquicacat in pare. 3Cmen."

" Here lies a noble man, Sir John Cherowin, in life, Governor of Porchefter Caftle, who died in the year of our Lord, 1441, on the laft day of October. May his foul reft in peace. Amen."

In the Oglander chapel are to be found altar-tombs to the memory of Sir William Oglander, and his fon Sir John Oglander, which charitable gentleman died in 1655. Their effigies are in wood. There is alfo a memorial of the death of Sir John's eldeft fon, a loyal cavalier, who breathed his laft in exile.

88 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

The Church of Brading, of courfe, has its grotefque afpec~l. Here, for inftance, is an epitaph written in deep earneftnefs, but which muft excite a fmile : —

" When (he afflidled was full (ore, Still with patience it fhe bore, And oft to the Lord did fay, The Lord have mercy on me, I pray ; And when her glafs was fully run, She clofed her eyes without a groan."

The regifter, which dates from 1547, contains this very fingular entry: — " Burials^ Novemb. ye 2oth, 1677. Jowler (alias) John Knight, of Merton, whoe, rather than he would be charitable to himfelfe (when he was capacitated), liv'd like a miferable wretch on ye publick charity. He liv'd in a p'petuall flavery through feare and fufpicion, and punifti'd both his back and belly to fill his purfe. He foe exceffively idolized his poore heap of muck yr it was death to him to think of parting. He was allwaies foe afraid of want, or yl he fhould dy as he had allwaies liv'd, a beggar, y* he dar'd not ufe wh't he had for his oune wellbeing, but liv'd and died with his beloved bagg in his neareft embraces ; and at length, yf he might pay his utmoft .homage both by life and death to his greate god Mammon, he voluntarily facrificed himfelf, and even dyed to fave charges."

Yaverland is about a mile-and-a-half from Brading. Yaver- land Church is fuppofed to have been erected in the twelfth or thirteenth century ; and it was here that Legh Richmond made his firft attempt to preach extempore, and completely failed ; though he was afterwards celebrated for the power and eloquence of his extemporaneous difcourfes. This interefting fpot is graphically defcribed by Mr. Richmond, in " The Dairyman's Daughter." It is pleafantly fituated on a rifing bank at the foot of a bold chalk hill, and, being furrounded by trees, has a rural and retired appearance. Clofe to the church-

BRADING. 89

yard ftands a large and ancient manfion, which was formerly the refidence of an opulent and a titled family, which has long been appropriated to the ufe of the eftate as a farm-houfe. It ftill retains confiderable traces of ancient grandeur, and gives a pleafing character to the fpot of ground on which the church ftands. In every direction, the roads that lead to this edifice poffefs diftinct and interefting features. One of them afcends between feveral rural cottages from the fea-fhore, which adjoins the lower part of the adjacent hill, and another leads to the church by a gently rifing approach between high banks covered with trees, bufhes, ivy, hedge-plants, and wild flowers."

Bembridge Down fhould alfo be vifited when the tourift is at Brading. It caps Culver Cliffs, whence perhaps, the ifland is feen at its beft. An author, who, when writing of the ifle, wrote with a love for every nook and hill it poffeffes, fays : — " At the Weft end of the Culver Cliffs, and thirty feet below their fummit, is ' The Hermit's Hole;' a cavern which penetrates about twenty feet into the rock. There is a path leading to it, but fo fteep, rugged, and dangerous, that only the moft venturefome would attempt to defcend. Nor is there any- thing in the cavern to compenfate for the danger and difficulty incurred in reaching it. Thefe cliffs are much reforted to by gulls and pigeons. From the latter they received their name, culppe being the Saxon word for pigeon."

Nor fhould the tourift forget to vifit Afhey Down, one of the higheft points in the ifland. No words better than Legh Richmond's can defcribe the view from this elevated pofition. He fays : — " Southward the view is terminated by a long range of hills (Shanklin, Wroxall, and Appuldurcombe) at about fix miles diftant. They meet to the weftward another chain of hills, of which the one whereon I fit forms a link, and the whole together nearly encompafs a rich and fruitful valley

N

9o

THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

filled with corn-fields and paftures. Through this vale winds a fmall ftream for many miles ; here and there lefler eminences arife in the valley, fome covered with wood, others with corn and grafs, and a few with heath and fern — one of thefe hills is diftinguiflied by a church (New Church) at the top, prefenting a ftriking figure in the landfcape. Villages, churches, country feats, farm-houfes, and cottages are fcattered over part of the fouthern valley. In this direction alfo appears an ancier.t manfion (Kingfton) embelliftied with woods, groves, and gardens. Southward is a broad expanfe of ocean, bounded only by the horizon. More to the eaft, in continuation of the chain of hills on which I am fitting (Afhey), rife two downs — Brading and Yaverland hills — one beyond the other. Both are covered with fheep, and the fea is juft vifible over the fartheft hill as a terminating boundary. At this point are feen {hips, fome of which are failing, and others laying at anchor. Weft- ward the hills follow each other, forming feveral intermediate and partial valleys, in undulations like the waves of the fea, and bending to the fouth complete the boundary of the larger valley I have defcribed, to the fouthward of the hill on which I fit. One hill alone, St. Catherine's, the higheft in the ifland, and about ten miles to the fouth-weftward, is enveloped in a cloud which juft permits a dim and hazy fight of a fignal-poft, a light- houfe, and an ancient chantry on its fummit."

Quarr Abbey.

OT far from Ryde is Quarr Abbey, which once had the diftinclion, in its palmy days, of being famionable — fafliion in monaftic life having been as powerful as elfewhere. The defcend- ants of the trees which fhadowed the Abbey in Norman times ftill fill in what remains of the Abbey ruins, and make it full of fvveet ftiadows and crofs-lights.

The Abbey was one of the earlieft of which England could boaft, and owed its exiftence to the bene:i- cence and piety of a lord of the ifle, Baldwin de Redvers. The building was ready for peopling in 1132-3, and foon a pofTe of Benedictine monks from Savigni, in Normandy, took pofleflion. The Abbey was dedicated to the Virgin, perhaps owing to its eftablifhment being fo near the fea. And this dedication it was, which probably led to the more familiar title beftowed by the monks upon the Abbey — that of uLa Fille de Savigni."

The fafhion of this Benedictine abbey was foon quite fettled. It became the mode for the knights and gentlemen of

92 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

the ifland generally, to patronife the eftablifhment, while it was part of the very duty of the lord of the ifle to be its foftering friend. The monaftic fyftem was not averfe to the acquifition of lands, and Quarr Abbey foon grew rich, and poflefled eftates at Shalfleet, Chale, Shorwell (one of the moll fertile bits in the ifle), Compton, and Luccombe. At many other points the monks held land, while at Binftead itfelf, a large piece of the parifh was attached to the Abbey. No doubt the charity beftowed by Quarr was equal to the demand made upon it. Nobody has ever doubted the liberal-handednefs of the Abbeys in dealing with the poor, nor muft it be forgotten that thefe eftates were wrefted from the fears or liberality of the rich Norman conquerors who had received their lands through William I.

In 1340 the Abbey was ftrongly fortified againft the attacks of the French, and the walls around it pierced with loopholes. A portcullis, eredled where a door or fcn&uary fhould have flood, annihilated all the peaceful religious afpecl which muft have been the charm of a monaftery, as it was the end of its eftablifliment.

And exactly as the temporal power of the abbots of Quarr fhut out its fpiritual ftrength, fo riches and vanity got into the very graves of the patrons of the Abbey, who elected to be buried within its military walls. The fimple placing of the dead body of the monk in the fquare of ground furrounded by the cloifters, was a habitude at Quarr which faded with its poverty. When William de Vernon came to be buried here, it was found that he had left the equivalent of nearly five thoufand pounds fterling of the money of to-day to buy him a tomb.

By this time the abbot of Quarr was the equal in power with the lord of the ifle. But retribution was hovering over

QUARR ABBEY. 93

the Abbey as over every monaftic eftablifhment in England. The rats had undermined their own dwelling-places. Almofl the laft magnificence of Quarr was the reception and interment, in 1507, of the remains of Lady Cicely, a daughter of Edward IV. By the commencement of the fixteenth century, riches and fafhion had hopeleflly perverted Quarr Abbey from all its original purpofes. Nay, we hear little even of its charity — a partial compenfation which the monks have always been ready to offer. Sixteen abbots had Quarr, from its rife to its fall. This gives an average to the reign of each abbot of nearly a quarter of a century, but Abbot Walter, eledted in 1323, found the abbotry fo good that he held it no lefs than fifty-five years.

When the fhadow of the Reformation was falling upon Quarr, its rent-roll was equal to ^2,000 a year of our money. By this time the power of the pen had been directed againft Quarr. Lambard very early in the fixteenth century had caft a {haft at it. "Although," he fays, " Paulus Jovius wrote that the inhabitants of this ifland be wont to boaft merely that they neyther had amongft them monks, lawyers, wolves, nor foxes, yet I find them all, fave one (the lawyers), in one monaftery, called Quarr, valued at 134 pounds of yearly revenue, and founded in the year 1132, after the order of Savigniac in France."

Came Henry VIII., and down went abbey, abbot, and monks ; the building was given up to decay, the inhabitants turned out to find bread as beft they might. Fortunately the men of Quarr were men of family, and therefore, in all proba- bility, the ejected monks did not die in the bye-ways as many religionifts did, abfolutely of ftarvation.

Commerce fwept over quiet old Quarr. Two wealthy merchants, brothers, named Mills, called the place theirs, and

94 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

did what they liked with their own. What they liked was to turn its refectory into a barn, its chapel into a ftable, and fo was an end of the mighty Abbey of Quarr. A bit of wall, a few windows, and a couple of doorways are, all that is left of an inftitution which was eftablifhed in charity and died in luxury.

In 1857 a road was being made clofe by the few ftones which may be called the Abbey ruins, when the men found an impediment which — but let us quote the paragraph that appeared in the IJle of Wight Obferver: — "Three fmall ftone boxes or chefts, each cheft being about two feet in length and one foot wide, were difcovered. They were placed fide by fide, — two of them nearly clofe together, and the third a foot or two to the fouth. Upon removing the heavy ftones of which the lids were compofed, three human fkeletons in a good ftate of prefervation were found. The leg and arm bones were on either fide, the ribs and fmall bones in the centre, and the fkulls at the weftern end, the latter being in all three cafes turned upfide down. It was evident thefe remains had been removed at fome time or other from the place of their original burial, and that they were of perfons of diftindtion was beyond doubt, or fuch care would not have been beftowed upon them."

And now antiquarians had a chance. The bones were found to be (i) thofe of an aged man, (2) of an aged woman, and (3) of a ftalwart man of forty years. Is there any probability in the happy fuggeftion that thefe were the remains of Baldwin de Redvers, his fair lady, and their fon? It may be fo. One can imagine that in the courfe of a century or two, the walls of the Abbey failing near the founder's grave, the mafons were fet to work, the crumbling bones of the founder, his dame, and their fon were reverently collected, put into ftone boxes, and carried near the chancel for burial.

QUARR ABBEY.

95

A little legend and fuperftition hangs about Quarr, by the way. Fiom what ruined abbey is fuperftition wholly abfent ? The tales told of Quarr feem to have an origin fimilar to the treafure myths of Bretagne, and may have come to England in the wake of the Normans, the neighbours when at home, of thofe people of Brittany, who to this day hope, almoft to a man, to become rich by the difcovery of hidden treafure. At Quarr this treafure, according to one tradition, takes the fhape of a fubterranean paflage, clofed by a golden gate ; while in the other it is a golden coffin, which contains the body of Eleanor of Guienne, corifort of Henry II., who was imprifoned here, and tradition fays, was buried in a wood fouth of the Abbey, and which is ftill protected from difcovery by magical fpells. What remains of this wood is to this day called Eleanor Grove.

Eaft and Weft Cowes.

OWES began on the weft, and taking in the eaft, anciently called Shamblord, gave its name to the new town, and thenceforth the colony of houfes was divided into Weft and Eaft Cowes by the river Medina, which, in its relation to the town, well deferves its name.

An author writing in 1808 fays : — " This town, which is pretty large and populous, ftands on the declivity of a hill on the weft fide of the river Medina, where it empties itfelf into the fea. Hence its eafy accefs either from Portfmouth or Southampton. The lower parts of the town are narrow, irregular, and crowded. Here is a conliderable trade carried on in every kind of pro- vifion, fo that veflels may fupply themfelves with eafe when deftined to the remoteft climes. The elevated parts of the town are delightful, boafting purity of air, and all the charms of a variegated profpeft. Not only gentlemen of the navy are partial to the fpot, but many of the nobility and gentry refide here during the fummer feafon."

EAST AND WEST COWES.

97

The author goes on further triumphantly to Hate that to fuch a pitch of civilization has Cowes reached, that a veflel can be had to take a traveller to Portfmouth for ten fhillings, a fum which will now carry him to London, and in very little more time than it then required to reach Portfmouth.

Cowes, like Ryde, fuddenly rofe into favour, as inland baths went out of faftiion, and the fea-fide was declared by the faculty to be the moft curative fpot for the invalid. In ten

COWES.

(From a Painting, by fermij/ton of Meflrs. BROWN & WHIELER )

recent years Cowes increafed its population by one fourth. It has no independent municipal exiftence, but is included in the borough of Newport. It has however, a local board, whofe members are elected by the ratepayers.

Cowes Harbour is the eftuary of the Medina (here half a mile acrofs), combining with the Solent Sea. Commodious, admirably flickered, and capable of admitting veflels of heavy

98 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

tonnage, its importance was very foon recognifed. Indeed, Cowes is the one point on the ifland which has anything like the appearance of a ferious maritime exiftence. The cuftoms now levied annually in this port amount to nearly ^4,000.

Weft Cowes Caftle was one of the round forts built by Henry VIII., after his rupture with Spain, and when the threat of a Spanifh invafion, which was only attempted in the reign of his daughter Elizabeth, gave fome uneafmefs to the country.

Like moft other caftles built for the defence of a diftricl:, it ultimately came to be a flate prifon, and in the time of Crom- well this was the only ufe to which the building was applied. Here was confined Davenant, the playwright, the firft man to introduce opera into England. After the reiteration, Weft Cowes Caftle, in common with the other ftrongholds of the ifland, became valuelefs. In 1781 the u Caftle" garrifon con- fifted of a captain at ten {hillings a day, and half-a-dozen gunners. Gradually the caftle fell into difufe. But in our time it has been turned to account j for in 1856-7 it was fold to the Royal Yacht Club, who at once fet to work and made it for the firft time during its exifter.ce perfectly charming.

The chief dockyard and Shipbuilding eftabliftiment is that of the Meflrs. White, whofe fame is world-wide, and who have built for every civilifed navy in the woild. The fwifteft yachts upon the feas have been launched from their yards, where more than four hundred men are employed throughout the year.

With yachts and feamen fwarming at Cowes, it need not be faid that the ftreets, narrow and hilly, partake to a large extent of that oil-fkin and (hip-upon-lhore character which is common to all fuch localities. However, the outfkirts reached, many open and pleafant roads at once greet the eyes.

To the Royal Yacht Club Cowes owes very much of its

EAST AND WEST COWES. 99

profperity. At its foundation, in 1812, the Club confided of 42 members. Here is its condition in 1840: — " Thera are now 157 members, viz., 3 dukes, 3 marqueffes, 12 earls, 3 vifcounts, 7 lords, 18 baronets, 7 honorables, 14 M.P.'s, I lieutenant-general, 6 colonels, I major, 5 poft captains, and 77 efquires — and 102 yachts of different fizes, from 30 tons to 451 tons; total tonnage, 9,632, employing upwards of 1,300 feamen, befide fhipwrights, joiners, fail- makers, &c.

" Any gentleman, being the bond fide owner of a Britifh yacht of 30 tons, or upwards, is eligible to become a member : there are four balloting days in the year, viz., on the fecond Saturday in May, at the Thatched Houfe Tavern, London ; on the fecond Friday in July, on the fecond Friday in Auguft, and on the firft Friday in September ; the three laft at the R.Y.C. Houfe, Cowes.

u There are 502 honorary members, confifting principally of admirals and captains in the royal navy.

"The members pay an entrance fee of ^15, and a fubfcrip- tion of j£8 annually. The honorary members pay no fubfcrip- tion, except they ufe the houfe and reading room, and then ^i per year: they are allowed to board and lodge in the houfe, the fame as the members, except between the I5th and 25th of Auguft. Each member can introduce a friend to the houfe for fourteen days ; and if longer, the member muft renew his friend's name in the vifitor's book at the end of each term ; the member's friend fo introduced has the ufe of the library, reading room, and houfe, gratis."

Since 1840 the importance of the Club has wonderfully aug- mented. It now includes nearly 200 members, poffeiling feven fcore yachts, and giving employment to nearly 2,000 feamen. No yacht under thirty tons is enrolled in the Club.

IOO THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

The annual regatta is one of the events of the feafon, drawing nearly all Englifh yachting men to the ifle in Auguft, and attracting year after year a greater number of foreigners. In fact, the fplendour of the Cowes yachts has afforded the younger Dumas an opening for a fcene in his comedy entitled "The Prodigal Father." It is a queftion of taking fome ladies of quality a fea-trip, from one of the fea-fide reforts upon the northern coaft of France — Dieppe.

" Tell me, young man," fays the extravagant father of the comedy, u how would you manage if you were permitted to conduit the marchionefs and her niece, who have a fancy for a trip on the fea, from this place to Treport? "

" I fhould manage very fimply. I mould call a fifherman, and hire his boat."

" And you think you would thereby act like a gentleman ? You hand a couple of ladies into a fiming fmack, fmelling of fifti and pitch, and you think you have done your duty ! "

"Whatelfecouldldo?"

" Liften ; this is what I fhould do. I fhould fend a defpatch to White, the great Englifh yacht builder at Cowes, ordering him to bring over a yacht at once, manned, equipped, and quite ready — a veffel fit for ladies."

Eaft Cowes is not fo profperous as its fellow, otherwife its defcription is fimply a repetition of that of Weft Cowes — yachting, failors, a fearching fmell of (hips' provifions, and quantities of oil-fkin.

High up in the town the vifitor will find a Botanic Garden. There is also an Eaft Cowes Caftle, but not the one built by Henry VIII., correfponding to that of Weft Cowes. Not a veftige of this building remains. Grofe in his Antiquities fays : — " This has been long totally demolifhed ; the materials have from time to time been carried away, fome within the

EAST AND WEST COWES. IOI

memory of perfons now living, in order to build a houfe at Newport, and for other erections."

Both Weft and Eaft Cowes are well provided with places of worfhip for all denominations. At Eaft Cowes the Trinity mafters have a houfe, while Her Majefty poflefles a private landing-place.

From Newport to Whippingham is a delightful walk, thus defcribed by Charles Knight: — "The rambler may very well keep befide the river to Whippingham, occafionally afcending the uplands ; and if he be a lover of river fcenery, he will not regret the devious courfe it has led him. The broad fweep of the ftream ftretches before you in bold fweeping curves, its clear green water curling into light ripples, and reflecting in long tremulous lines the white fails that are gliding rapidly along ; on each fide are fine hanging woods, or flopes of c glad light green.' In front the view is bounded by foftly-fwelling uplands, or when a turn in the path brings into fight the broad opening where the river falls into the fea, by the filver Solent, and the hazy coaft beyond."

Whippingham Church is a charmed place, as being that now ufed through many years by the Queen as her place of worfhip when in the ifle. But the old building was fwept away to make room for a new edifice, the firft ftone of which was laid by Her Majefty seven months, almoft to a day, before the Prince Confort expired. The act was one of the laft royal public works previous to that great cataftrophe. The old church was not of extraordinary architectural intereft, but it was much vifited by reafon of its aflbciations with the royal family of England. Knight fays of the old building: — "The only poffible thing to notice infide would be its fcrupulous cleanness. Now, of courfe, the royal pews are looked at by the ftranger, but they are quiet and unafluming, only diftin- guifhed from the reft by a rather richer lining."

Ofborne.

S BORNE is derived from Aufterburne. The eftate which formed a nucleus for the 5,000 acres now comprifed in the word Ofborne, was the hereditary land of the Bowermans through many generations. From them it pafied through the hands of the Arneys to the Lovibonds, who held it until the time of Charles I., when it pafled into the pofleflion of Euftace Mann, about whofe memory is told one of thofe treafure tales with which Quarr is aflbciated. It is said that Mann buried a large fum of money in a wood near his houfe, and never could find the fpot beneath which the treafure lay. The tradition will not hold water, but the common people in fupport of their belief, triumphantly point to the fa£l that the fpot is called to this day Money Coppice. No doubt many a ruftic, when that part of the ifle was lefs ftridly guarded than it now is, has fought in a defultory way for the loft treafure. If it has been found, no whifper of the difcovery has reached the general

OS BORNE.

103

ear. The grand-daughter of this Euftace Mann married a Mr. Blachford, whofe fon built Ofborne House, a manfion of fome architectural pretenfion. It was a defcendant of this gentle- man, the Lady Ifabella Blachford, who fold the eftate to the Queen in 1840. By fubfequent purchafes, it now extends almoft from the Medina on the weft, to King's Quay on the eaft ; and here at King's Quay, it is faid, John King of England remained in hiding for fome time, when threatened

OSBORNE.

by the barons; hence the name, King's Quay. Indeed, feveral ifolated atoms of traditional evidence go to prove that John muft unqueftionably have vifited the ifland.

The old unpretending houfe was pulled down, and the hand- fome Italian building which now occupies its fite ere&ed in its ftead. It is believed that the architecture of Ofborne is almoft wholly due to the late Prince Confort, The two towers, which

104 THE 1SLE OF WIGHT.

can be seen quite readily from Spithead, anfwer the purpofe — the one (90 feet high) of a campanile or bell tower, the other (107 feet in height) of a flag tower.

The Queen's apartments face the fea, but it is faid Her Majefty's great delight when at Ofborne is to pafs much of her time, when the weather will permit, upon one or other of the flat terrace roofs with which the houfe abounds. In the photograph the Queen's rooms are thofe on the right, fituated before the flag tower.

Vifitors are fo rigoroufly excluded from the palace and grounds of Ofborne, that very little is known concerning either. The gardens are eflentially of the terrace order, and they flope almoft to the water's edge. The houfe itfelf is crowded with works of art, and efpecially examples of fculpture by the greateft fculptors in the Englifh fchool.

But if, on the one hand, the public are excluded from the palace and park of Ofborne, on the other hand it muft be felt that the intereft the Queen took in the eftablishment of the model farm, was, up to the time of the Prince Confort's death, boundlefs and conftant. Upon that model farm was conducted a feries of experiments which we have no doubt muft have refulted in a great advance in agricultural knowledge had the promoter been fpared to continue his work. As it happened there was no time afforded to admit of refults, and there re- mains but the commencement of a great work. Every farmer in the vicinity, who had an opportunity of exercifing his judgment, will bear teftimony to the extraordinary vigour and fkill with which the Prince's agricultural experiments were carried on. Nor was fport forgotten : the eftate ftill maintains fome excellent kennels.

The Ofborne lodges on the Eaft Cowes road are of fmgu- larly fanciful dcfign. Ofborne muft not be left without fome

OSBORNE. 105

reference to the one chapter of antiquity in connection with the place. One of the eftates abforbed into the royal demefne was that of Barton Manor. Coming, almoft immediately after the Conqueft, into the hands of the Fitz Sturs, their heirefs, in the reign of Henry III., married one Walter de Infula, who, very obvioufly by his name, had been born on the ifle. Shortly afterwards, in 1272, John de Infula, his brother, founded here a religious houfe, endowed it nobly, and dedicated it to the Trinity. The constitution of this eftablifhment, preferved at Winchefter, gives an antiquarian intereft to the fpot. Here is a copy of it.

" i. There fhall be fix chaplains and one clerk, to officiate both for the living and the dead, under the rules of St. Augus- tine. 2. One of thefe mail be prefented to the Biftiop of Winchefter to be the arch-prieft, to whom the reft fhall take an oath of obedience. 3. The arch-prieft fhall be chofen by the chaplains there refiding, who fhall prefent him to the bifhop within twenty days afcer any vacancy fhall happen. 4. They fhall be fubjeft to the immediate authority of the bifhop. 5. When any chaplain fhall die, his goods fhall remain in the oratory. 6. They fhall have only one mefs, with a pittance at a meal, excepting on the greater feftivals, when they may have three mefTes. 7. They fhall be diligent in reading and pray- ing. 8. They fhall not go beyond the bounds of the oratory without licence from the arch-prieft. 9. Their habits fhall be of one colour, either blue or black ; they fhall be clothed pallia Hibernienfi de nigra boneta cum pileo (in the Irifh veftment of a black bonnet and a cloak). 10. The arch-prieft fhall fit at the head of the table, next to him thofe who have celebrated the great mafs, then the prieft of St. Mary, next the prieft of the Holy Trinity, and then the prieft who fays mafs for the dead. ir. The clerk fhall read fomething edifying to them

IO6 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

while they dine. 12. They (hall fleep in one room. 13. They {hall make fpecial prayer for their benefa&ors. 14. They {hall, in all their ceremonies, and in tinkling the bell, follow the ufe of Sarum. 15. The arch-prieft alone {hall have charge of the bufinefs of the houfe. 16. All of them, after their admiflion into the houfe, {hall fwear to obferve these ftatutes. Further Ordered: — After a year and a day from entering into the oratory, no one {hall accept of any other benefice, or {hall depart the houfe."

Upon the diffolution of religious eftablifhments, this of the Holy Trinity fell to pieces, and ultimately upon its fite, or near it, was built in the time of Elizabeth, Barton Court, which remained in partial exiftence until pulled down on its purchafe by Her Majefty.

Moody fays of this building : — u One peculiarity of the houfe was, that it contained a room about twelve feet fquare, known as the Chapel, which had been apparently fitted up as a fecret chapel for the performance of mafs, fubfequent to the Reforma- tion, and which, within the memory of living individuals, retained its altar, crucifix, and other Catholic acceffories." Some portions of the old building, its fouthern and its eaftern front, were however, retained, and now form part of the royal refidence.

Newport.

'EAVING Ofborne, Whippingham Church neftles in a hollow in front, while the land is dotted with the red brick buildings occupied by the royal labourers' cottages. They are pleafant little buildings, yet with that model look about them which is fo comfortlefs. Throughout, there are evidences of the intereft taken by Her Majefty and the Prince in the improvement of the eftate. The labourers meet you with perfect fimpliciry, yet with a full knowledge that they are a fort of mow folk. Here we find the practical out-crop of royalty in our time. It leans to agriculture, to making itfelf one with others, to its being people amongft the people, and to poflefling interefts identical with theirs.

It is well to turn from the fmiling acres, the undulating valleys, and the red brick cots, to the left, and look upon that frowning caftle which now comes in view. A great contraft — on the one hand the heavy walls, on the other the royalty of to-day. Where are thofe old caftles, with their thick-hided

IO8 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

miftruft ? The moats are dry, the bridges have fallen, the portcullifes are rufted, and the walls are crumbling: — colonies for half-ftarved owls, jays, rooks, and magpies; the whole placed in the feeble care of fome poor aged retainer, who totters over the place, and opens the outer door with a rufty key. The defcendants of the caftellans have gone into civilifed houfes, and as to their fuccefs, the anfwer is in the fmiling acres around Ofborne, and in the quiet manner in which the Queen drives about the ifland.

Suddenly the traveller faces Newport — Whippingham fteeple is loft — Whippingham, which owns a chapelry that pays ten (hillings a year in acknowledgment of its dependency. And now we face the hill crowned by Carifbrook Caftle.

The firft warning Carifbrook had of its fate, was when Ifabel fold the ifle to the Englifh crown. Hitherto Newport was the village. Carifbrook, nettling under the Caftle, was the capital of the ifland. But with the fale Carifbrook loft its importance as the refidence of a feudal baron, and with that importance fell what power was poflefTed by the Priory, a power which well competed with that of Quarr.

Newport now began to rife in importance, for while the mif- truftful Caftle was on a hill, Newport was fituated more wifely on a river, and its boats foon began to be bufy carrying the corn and hay grown in the heart of the ifle, and bringing back such commodities as foreign lands and diftant London had to offer. Soon the fong of the water-mill was heard upon the banks of the river, and Carifbrook began to fall to pieces. However, the brave old place ftill holds up its hoary head. A couple of modern cannon would fend it into a heap of rubbifh in an hour, but there being no need to interfere with its green old age, it remains a pleafant end to a tourift's jaunt.

Newport is, loofely fpeaking, nearly in the centre of the ifland,

NEWPORT. lOQ

and advantageoufly fituated for commerce, which here has never, from the time of the Reformation, ceafed (readily to increafe.

The Medina, the river upon which Newport lies, is navigable up to the town for fmall craft only, but the power of the engi- neer has been felt in fome degree, as in almoft all parts of England.

Newport exports corn, which is carried down to Cowes, where it is re-fhipped, the return cargoes confirming of coal, iron, timber, and groceries; for Newport is the centre whence the interior and back of the ifland are fupplied with their daily luxuries.

In the time of good Sir Richard Worfley, that baronet was proud to make the record, that on market-day, every Saturday, not fewer than 200 waggon loads of various kinds of grain were brought into the town, amounting to from 1,300 to 1,500 quarters, the greater part of which remained on the ifland until converted into {hips' bread, or rather bifcuit, which was preferably bought up for the Englifh navy.

Newport itfelf is not very flriking, for there is no building within its boundaries calling for high admiration, while the houfes themfelves have little of the quaintnefs of age to re- commend them. The town, however, is wide and open, while its feveral fquares give it an airy appearance which is much in its favour.

The ancient Church of St. Thomas a Becket muft have been eftablimed about 1180, the founder being Richard de Redvers, a pious foul, who covenanted with the priory at Carifbrook, that two monks mould pray at St. Thomas's daily. The building was due to much brotherly effort, for every guild in the town gave the church a helping hand, and hence it came to pafs, that the diftinguiming figns of each

IIO THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

company were carved upon the exterior walls. It remained a chapelry of Carifbrook until very recently. Newport alfo pofiefles the power of appointing its own minifter, who at one time depended upon voluntary contributions, but at a later date upon a town rate. However, the burgefles frrove, even fo early as the time of the unhappy Charles I , to render Newport parochial, but without fuccefs. Many were the petitions forwarded to Parliament in the endeavour to obtain this advantage — petitions that were confidered, and practically put on one fide.

Here is a copy of one of the petitions in queftion.

" The bumble Petition of the Maior and BurgeJ/es, and other cheife inhabitants of the Burrough of Newport, in the JJle of Wight, Sheweth: —

" i. That the faid Burough is a Corporation, a port Towne, and auntient Markett Towne, wch ferveth the whole Ifle of Wight. Seated in ihe hart of the Jfland, confifting of about three thoufand foules there in habitant, adourned w'h a very convenient Church lately enlarged, and well-fitted, and bewtified by the greate expenfe of the Inhabitants.

" 2. That the faid Church being called St. Thomas Chappell is but a Chappell of Ease unto the p'ifh of Carifbrooke, wch is a greater p'ifh, the viccarage thereof, wth the other profitts thereto belonging, being reputed to be worth twoe hundred pounds at the leaft, and the obventions. oblations, and proffitts due to the Vicar, out of Newport, xx1' pound, or thereabouts, whereof Mr. Alexander RofTe, the nowe Tncumbent (liveing out of the Ifland), alloweth but ten pounds pr annum to the newe curate, namely Mr. William Harby, Mafter of Arts, an able and laborious preacher, and a man of honeft converfation, whoe for the time of his abode in Newport, being about twelve yeares, hath not omitted preaching there on any Saboth day (unlefs by ficknefs or other neceffity he hath been p\ented).

" 3. That the cure of foules in Newport hath been but meanly ferved in times pad, and like enough would be foe nowe, did not the Inhabitants, by a voluntary benevolence to the faid Mr. Harby make an addition to his meanes to keepe him wth them. And it is greatly feared that in time to come the Inhabitants may fuffer much want of fpirituall foode for their foules — if their preachers means be not augmented.

NEWPORT. JII

" Yr Petrs therefore moft humbly pray that the p'miflfcs may be taken into yr ho13'-6 and pious confideration. And that yt may be enafted and fettled by Parliamt, if that high and hoble houfe think it convenient, that the faid Bui rough of Newport may be a diftinft p'im of ytfclf. And that y°r Pefs and their fucceflbrs may have the p'entation of the parfon thereof for ever, wch if it may be obteyned, y Petrs (albeit the town is very poor, and they have been at extraordinarie charge already unto the church) yet for the advancem' of preaching the Word of God in the fame Burrough they are very willing that it be alfo enafted that twelve pence of every pound of the yearly rents of the houfes and lands within the faid Burrough (wch it Js confidered will amount to a competency) fliall be rayfed for an addition of means to the parson of the faid Burrough for perpetuity, wch yor Petrs con- ceive will be a great work of piety, and muft tend to the glory of Almighty God, the greate comforte of the fouls of his people in the said Burrough inhabiting and thither reforting ffor wch y Petrs mall ever be bound to thankfulnefs."

This petition is dated February I, 1640.

Nine years before its date a rich inhabitant, being a burgefs of Newport, had beftowed upon the church a new and fantaftic pulpit, carved by one Caper, an appropriate name, who ufed an appropriate fymbol of himfelf upon the carved wood, in the fhape of a carved goat. This pulpit is ftill to be feen in the new church, which was built upon the flte of the ancient building.

One William Pavey, who flourished in 1718-19, gives a very elaborate defcription of this old church, dedicated to Thomas a Becket.

" The church is like, at firft view, three ridged houfes joined, embattled on the top. On the upper part are five windows between fix leaden fpouts, and underneath four large windows, with a large porch, which is the grand entrance, in the middle of the fouth fide. The tower is pretty lofty, and embattled with four pinnacles.

" Within the church is one of the moft curious carved pulpits that I ever faw, the work of one Thomas Caper (who now lies buried in Salifbury), Ano. Dm. 1630, in which year the feats likewife were erefted. It was a

112 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

donation of one Stephen March, whofe creft isagainft the back of the pulpit.* As for the carving, round the founding board of it is this infcription in neat, wrought, and gilded letters: ' Cry aloud and fpare not ; lift up thy 'voice like a trumpet? The pulpit is divided into two rows of baf-relief carved images. On the uppermoft row are curioufly defcribed the four Cardinal Virtues and the three Graces, with their types ; and on the lower rank the feven liberal fciences — namely Grammatica, Dialeftica, Rhetorica, Mufica, Arithrnetica Geometria, and Aftronomia, with the leveral fymbols and charafteriftics of each fcience. 'Tis a true church militant, for there is a canon placed to defend the church now it is in danger. Nothing more remarkable in it, but a neat, light grey marble front. [This is in the new building, and bears an infcription — "The gi<vet of Anne Keith, Widow, 1637.']

"Underneath the ftep that goes up to the altar is the vault wherein is in- terred the Lady Elizabeth, daughter to King Charles I.j and this is the infcription, as Mr. John Gilbert, jun., told me: —

"'THE LADY ELIZABETH, DAUGHTER TO KING CHARLES THE lST} SEPT. 8, MDCL.'

" Againft the fouth wall is the famed tomb of Sir Edward Horfley, Knt., who was often fent thither in Henry VIII. 's time, to defend it from any fudden invafion from France. It is a curious marble monument, on which lies his effigies at length, armed at all points complete, with his hands held up, and joined in a praying manner, and on an oval piece of black marble this epitaph: —

'* ' Edvardvs qvi miles erat fortiflimvs Horfey. Vectis etat praefes, conftans terraq. mariq. Magnanimvs placidae fvb pacis nomine fortis Jvftitiae Cvltor qvam fidvs amicvs amico Favtor Evangelii dele&vs Principe vixit Mvnificvs Popvlo mvltvm dele&vs ah omni Vixit et vt fandle fie ftamina fancle peregit.'

" ' Qvi ob. 23 die Marcii, Anno Domini 1582."

" This is all that is worth notice in the Church.

'" In the church-yard, which is about a quarter of a mile weft of the church, neatly walled in, are the following remarkable infcriptions: — " ' Here lyeth the body of Mastr George Shergold, late Minifter of New-

* Was the goat the crefl. of Stephen March, or a punning fymbol of the carver's name ? Perhaps it meant both.

NEWPORT. 113

port, who, during fixteen years in difcharge of his office, ftriftly obferved the true difcipline of the Church of England difliking that dead bodies mould be buried in God's houfe, appointed to be interred in this place. He dyed univerfally lamented and efteemed, January 23, 1707.'

" On a head-ftone on the fouth fi<le of the church-yard, this: — "'Here lyeth ye body of John Smith, who departed this life ye nth day of Auguft, in ye year of our Lord 1712, in ye 24th year of his age.'

" ' Stay, gentle reader, fpend a tear Upon ye duft yl fleepeth ere ; And whilft thou read'ft ye ftate of me, Think on ye gla(s yl runs for thee.' "

"On a brafs plate on a fine raifed tomb near }e middle of ye church- yard:—

" ' Here is laid ye body of Mr. John Stanner, who departed tnis life ye •^6th of March, 1713, in ye 65th year of his age: a man exemplary for piety, and forward in works of charity, efpecially worthy of a gor.d and lading (Jic) for an aft of gratitude more than common, as in return for a feafonable (tho' noe great) benefaction, he bequeathed ye greareft (hare of his eftate (gotten by an honeft induftry) to come to ye great-grandchildren of that his benefaftor.'

" S'ee by this how ye bread that a man may have caft upon ye waves cometh to be again found after many days."

It was in 1853-4, not very many years after Her Majefty had acquired the Ofborne eftate, that the old church of St. Thomas exhibited fuch unequivocal figns of decay that its demolition became an abfolute neceffity. Already the royal family had identified themfelves moft heartily with all fchemes tending to the advancement of the ifland, and therefore the Prince Confort readily confented to officiate at the laying of the foundation (lone of the new building, which was placed on Auguft 24th, 1854. The works were fo vigoroufly carried on that the edifice was opened for divine worfhip in 1856. By that time ,£10,000 had been laid out upon the building. The church is in the ftyle known as Early Englifti. It exhibits much harmony ; it is 1'ght, elegant, and worthy of its architect, Mr. Daukes.

114 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

The monuments which gave fo great an intereft to the ancient church were replaced in the new building. And now it was that Her Majefty fhowed the tender memory in which fhe held that royal unfortunate, the Princefs Elizabeth. Here, in the new church of St. Thomas, fhe has ereded a monument in memory of that unhappy princefs, who, at a very early age, muft have welcomed death as a fweet relief. The monument is one of the moft fuccefsful works of the late Baron Marochetti. It reprefents the princefs lying dead under the window of her prifon, which they fhow you at Carifbrook, her head pillowed upon a Bible as fhe was found by the jailors who watched her. The likenefs is from a portrait in the pofleffion of Her Majefty, and the following infcription completes the work : — "To the memory of the Princefs Elizabeth, daughter of Charles I., who died at Carifbrook Caftle on Sunday, Sept. 8th, 1650, and is interred beneath the chancel of this church, this monument is erected — a token of refpeft for her virtues, and of fympathy for her misfortunes — by Victoria R., 1856."

Speaking of this princefs, Clarendon fays: — "She was a lady of diftinguifhed parts, of quick obfervation, and early under- ftanding." She fank into an early grave at the age of fifteen, three of which fhe had pafled in confinement. Hume fays it was intended by her Puritan jailors to have apprenticed the princefs to a button-maker in Newport, but the ftatement utterly lacks evidence. " Vatene in pace alma beata e bella" She expired about nineteen months after the execution of the king, dying no doubt all the time. It was fo late as 1793 that the remains were difcovered in a vault near the altar. A ftone bearing the letters E. S. (Elizabeth Stuart) marked the fpot. The vault was perfectly dry, and contained a leaden coffin, which appeared as though new, and bore this infcription —

NEWPORT. 115

a flrangely royal one for her parliamentary undertakers to place upon it —

ELIZABETH 20 DAVGHTER

OF YE LATE KING CHARLES

Diced Sept. 8 MDCL.

A kindlier epitaph followed, two centuries being part.

Up ti the time of Elizabeth the dead of Newport were carried to Carifbrook, but during the life of that monarch, an epidemic raging in Newport, the burial ground at Carifbrook was found too narrow, and the people of Newport, turning their attention to the formation of a graveyard of their own, obtained the grant of a ftretch of land on the fouth fide of the town, which is ufed as a cemetery to this day.

Newport is a market town and a borough ; Saturday is the general market day, and to the market the whole produce of the ifland is brought. Upon every other Wednefday a cattle market is held. The annual fair, which is dying out, as all annual fairs are expiring, is held every Whit-Monday and two following days. Newport has a jurifdi&ion of its own, holds a court of borough petty feflions every Monday, and county petty feflions every Saturday. Once a month, alfo, a county court for the ifland fits at Newport.

It was at the in dance of Sir George Carey, Governor of the Ifle of Wight, that Newport was fummoned to return two reprefentatives to Parliament in the 2jth of Elizabeth, 1585. From that date, when candidates for parliamentary honours were far from plentiful, to the prefent time, Newport has always been regularly reprefented. However, it muft be admitted that until the operation of the firft Reform A6t Newport was unqueftionably a clofe borough, for the right of voting had till then been confined to free burgefles, the number of thefe being reftri&ed to twenty-four. Hence it followed that lefs

Il6 THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

than two dozen votes could return a couple of members to the Houfe of Commons. The conftituency has had the honour of returning to parliament, amongft its more diftinguifhed reprefentatives, the late Lord Palmerfton (1790-1807), and the Right Hon. George Canning (1826). By the Reform A£t (1868) one member has been taken away.

The population is a little over eight thoufand. Nor is the corporation of Newport in an unflourifhing condition. A few years fince its income amounted to £1,054, while its expendi- ture was only £543.

Newport, amongft other advantages of civilization, poflefles a fire brigade, worked at the fmall annual expenditure of j£6o, and this although the brigade confifts of a fuperintendent, three engineers, three foremen, and five firemen.

Amongft the public buildings of Newport, the Town Hall, a heavy but fubftantial building, is noticeable. The Free Grammar School is a plain building, interesting from the facts that here Charles I. met the Parliamentary Commiffioners in 1648, and that in the chamber now ufed as a fchool-room divine fervice was, in the early part of the royal imprifonment, performed before the haplefs king and his fuite. The fchool, which owes its exiftence chiefly to good Sir Thomas Oglander (and the Oglander MSS. relating to the ifle have ftill to be publifhed — no doubt they will one day fee the light), was intended for the education on the foundation of fifteen (now twenty) boys, who ftill enter at from feven to eight years of age, and quit at fifteen. The fchool alfo receives thirty day fcholars, while the mafter may receive boarders. The chief reliable income of the eftablifhment arifes from the rent of three houfes in Newport, and of about 35 acres of land at Hemmy Hill. The nominal falary given to the mafter is j£i2o, together with a rent-free houfe and garden.

NEWPORT. 117

The Ifle of Wi^ht Mufeum is to be found in what may be candidly ftyled a barn, and