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 afpet 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: u The 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 firic&: unfccr tfcis 0rauc, Battles: fjt Motile *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 as 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 ator, 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