XVIII—­BLACKGANG CHINE, 84

  XIX—­FRESHWATER BAY, 92

   XX—­WATCOMBE BAY, ib.

  XXI—­SCRATCHELL’S Bay and the Needle Rocks, 96

CHAPTER I.

THE PECULIAR ADVANTAGES OF THE ISLAND AS THE OBJECT OF A SUMMER’S EXCURSION.

Variety is the characteristic charm of the Isle of Wight; the scenery being in fact a most happy combination of the grand and romantic, the sylvan and marine—­throughout a close interchange of hills and dales, intersected by streams and rivers:  combining the quiet of rural life with the fashionable gaiety of a watering-place, or the bustle of a crowded sea-port.  But generally, its landscapes are more distinguished for beauty than sublimity, and hence the very appropriate designation of “THE GARDEN OF ENGLAND!” an emphatic compliment cheerfully paid by the thousands annually visiting its shores for pleasure or for health:  and perhaps there is scarcely another spot in the kingdom, of the same narrow limits, which can concentrate more of those qualities that at once charm the eye and animate the soul.  Nor should it be overlooked how large a source of interest is derived from the proximity of those two celebrated towns, Southampton and Portsmouth:  and the beautiful termination given to most of the open prospects by the retiring distances on the opposite coast.

                 ——­“Intermixture sweet,
    Of lawns and groves, of open and retired,
    Vales, farms, towns, villas, castles, distant spires. 
    And hills on hills with ambient clouds enrolled,
    In long succession court the lab’ring sight.”

But the crowning beauty of the Island is certainly THE SEA! viewed in all the splendor of its various aspects;—­whether under the awful grandeur of the agitated and boundless Ocean,—­as a rapid and magnificent River,—­or reposing in all the glassy tranquillity of a spacious land-locked Bay:—­now of a glowing crimson, and now of the purest depth of azure:  its bosom ever spangled with a thousand moving and attractive objects of marine life.

To those who have never had the opportunity of viewing the sea except under the comparatively dreary aspect which it presents from many unsheltering parts of the southern coast, as for instance Brighton, where almost the only relief to the monotony of the wide expanse is a few clumsy fishing boats or dusky colliers, and occasionally the rolling clouds of smoke from a passing steamer,—­it may seem that we are rather disposed to exaggerate the picture; but not so, as would certainly be attested by every one who had visited the island:  for here the scene is ever enriched by magnificent SHIPS OF WAR, innumerable merchant-vessels, and splendid pleasure-yachts, safely