Brannon's Picture of The Isle of Wight eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 137 pages of information about Brannon's Picture of The Isle of Wight.

Brannon's Picture of The Isle of Wight eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 137 pages of information about Brannon's Picture of The Isle of Wight.

The new Light-house stands near the edge of the sea-cliffs, at an elevation of about fifty feet above the beach.  The stone Tower is 101 feet high from the surface of the ground, besides the lantern of about 20 feet more:  and the foundation is of solid masonry to the depth of thirty feet!  The requisite offices for the two light-keepers are built round the foot of the tower, and are comparatively low, so that at a distance the lofty fabric appears as a magnificent column, or

    “Like some tall watch-tower nodding o’er the deep,
    Whose rocky base the foaming waters sweep.”

Inside the tower a broad stone staircase winds spirally to the top; and many visitors make the ascent, for the sake of the beautiful view afforded of the adjacent part of the Undercliff, as well as for examining the splendid and complicated lantern.

* * * * *

As the carriage-road now pursues its mazy course through ...

    “Crags, knolls, and mounds, confus’dly hurl’d,
    The fragments of an earlier world,”

We soon reach the locality of the SANDROCK CHALYBEATE SPRING:  easily recognized by the low thatched roof of the Dispensary Cottage, that stands nearly on the brow of the cliff, as the water issues from a rock considerably below, inclosed in a plain piece of masonry.  It has been proved by repeated analyses, that there is a larger proportion of iron and alumine in this than in any other mineral water yet discovered:  and its medicinal properties are therefore decidedly indicated in the cure of those disorders arising from a relaxed fibre and languid circulation, such as indigestion, flatulency, nervous disorders, and debility from a long residence in hot climates.

Great improvement has taken place in the neighbourhood of the Spring, within these few years, by extensive draining:  thus preventing the land-soaks and springs during winter from settling into frequent pools, and thereby reducing the soil to the repulsive condition of a sterile waste of quagmire and sliding rocks, and in every succeeding summer drying up into a thousand dangerous holes and fissures.  The ground in fact is now sufficiently firm to invite the builder to the erection of some good houses; and the surface exhibits a healthy herbage:  roads have also been made to the shore.  A large and handsome-looking house, called an “Italian Villa,” has been erected on the east side of the Spring,—­but if the architect ever copied such for his model, he certainly should have selected a site more appropriate, that would have justified his choice of style by its genial aspect, its greenwood shades, and the vegetative luxuriance of the soil.

* * * * *

The shore here is called ROCKEN-END RACE, being composed of vast confused heaps of rocky fragments precipitated in the course of ages from the cliffs above, and now stretching out into the sea for nearly a mile and a half.—­Between this and Freshwater lie other formidable reefs, respectively named from the nearest villages, ATHERFIELD, CHILTON, and BROOKE; they are extremely dangerous:  and previously to the erection of the new Light-house, occasioned frequent shipwrecks.

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Brannon's Picture of The Isle of Wight from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.