The visitor will of course endeavour to descend to the shore; but this is sometimes attended with considerable fatigue and difficulty, after wet weather, to those who are delicate and infirm.  For this reason, we have taken our sketch from near the new bridge, to which the descent from the hotel is generally easy:  and from which the visitor may gain such a view as will enable him to form a very good idea of the whole scene.  The windings of the Chine commence a little below the Hotel, which (as already stated) stands at least 500 feet above the beach.

From the proximity of several newly erected villas and lodging-houses, it ought here to be stated to the visitor, that the true character of the place is in consequence greatly injured:  for the garish and obtrusive habitations of genteel life but ill accord with that solitary and impressive magnificence which constitutes the very interest—­the sublimity and peculiarity of a silent and cheerless scene, such as formerly were the aspect and condition of Blackgang Chine and its immediate neighbourhood.

“There has long been a tradition that Blackgang Chine was once the favorite retreat of a gang of pirates, and from that circumstance its name was derived.—­Without disputing the fact of its having offered occasionally concealment and a safe depository to smugglers, or even pirates for a time,—­it is equally, if not more probable, that it is indebted for its very expressive appellation to its sombre coloring, and the step-like appearance of the strata, if the word gang be admitted to have the same signification as it has in a ship.”

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Between Blackgang and Freshwater are several other Chines on an inferior scale, partaking more or less of the same sterile aspect:  such are Walpan, Whale, Compton, Cowleaze and the Shepherd’s, Grange, Chilton, and Brooke:  but though several of them are well entitled to notice, they are seldom visited, owing to their remoteness from the public roads.

>> It should be observed however, that though they possess less scenic interest than those already described,—­they embrace a portion of the island most attractive to the geologist, from the circumstance of the cliffs and shores abounding in the most beautiful specimens of fossil remains.—­We would moreover call the attention of those visitors who may desire to examine into the agency which has produced the chines, to the two called Cowleaze and the Shepherd’s—­the latter of which has been formed within the last 40 years, in consequence, it is said, of a countryman in an idle moment turning the course of the small rivulet which had hitherto run through Cowleaze.  They are situated about a mile from Brixton.

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ST. CATHARINE’S HILL

(In the steep side of which on the south is Blackgang Chine), is the highest in the island, or between 800 and 900 feet above the level of the sea.  An ancient octagon tower stands at the top, built on the site of, or rather as an appendage to, a hermitage—­originally endowed by a benevolent individual for the purpose of providing lights in dark and stormy nights:—­there is also the shell of the old light-house mentioned at p. 79.