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Court, 5th November 1647. The Governor, Colonel Hammond, at first treated him as a guest, and placed no restriction on his movements. He was afterwards, however, subjected to close imprisonment, during the course of which he made several unsuccessful attempts to escape. The apartments in which he was confined are now ruinous, but a window is still pointed out as that by which he made the attempts to regain his liberty.

After Charles's execution, his two youngest children, the Duke of Gloucester and the Princess Elizabeth, became inmates of Carisbrook Castle. The latter died here, and the former, about two years after the death of his sister, was liberated by the influence and advice of Cromwell.

The old hunting-forest, called Parkhurst, which extended over nearly 4000 acres, and came close up to Newport and Carisbrook, is now so completely cut down, that scarcely any thing remains but brushwood. The walks through it are, however, still extremely pleasant.

A delightful excursion may be made from Newport to the north-east, in the direction of Fernhill and Wooton Bridge. The mansion at Fernhill was built by the late Duke of Bolton, when he was governor of the island. Behind it there is a plantation of noble trees, and the grounds are laid out in excellent taste. Wooton Bridge is a remarkably pretty village, on the left bank of the river Wooton, about 3 miles from Newport. About two miles from Wooton Bridge, on the shore of the Solent Strait, there is a place called King's Key, where King John is said to have landed when he came to the Isle of Wight, after signing Magna Charta on the field of Runnymede. He remained three months in concealment in this neighbourhood, devising means to subvert the provisions of that charter. In the fine season of the year, a passage-boat goes and returns every day between Wooton Bridge and Portsmouth. At no great distance from this village is Osborne House, the residence of Her Majesty and the Prince Consort, and near it, Norris Castle, and East Cowes Castle (Earl of Shannon) Crossing the river Wooton, and passing a beautiful mount called Kite Hill, a delightful walk of 14 miles will bring the tourist to the ruins of Quarr Abbey. This once famous establishment was erected in the twelfth century by Baldwin de Rivers and Richard his son, who were both buried within its walls. It was dedicated to St Mary Magdalen, and the monks were of the Cistertian order. The abbey derived its name from the stone quarries in its neighbourhood, which furnished a great part of the stone employed in building Winchester Cathedral. Of the abbey scarcely any part now remains except some of the outer walls, which are said to have enclosed thirty acres of ground, and a very small portion of the abbey offices, which have been converted into barns and other farm-buildings. After the dissolution, Quarr Abbey was purchased by a Mr Mills of Southampton. His son sold it to the Lord Chief Justice, Sir Thomas Fleming, with whose descendants it still remains.

From Quarr Abbey, a pleasant footpath leads to the church yard of Binstead ; and a little farther on is the town of Ryde, which, eighty years ago, was only a

fishing-village, but is now a considerable and beautiful town, surrounded with groves, villas, and cottages. The views from the town and neighbourhood are very fine. East of Ryde, are Ryde House, St John's, St Clare's, Fairy Hill, and the Priory. A little farther on, near the mouth of Brading Haven, is the pretty village of St Helen's, built round a green near the sea. Striking inland, a pleasant road will convey the tourist to the village of Brading, picturesquely situated on the slope of a hill at the bottom of Brading Haven. The church, which is supposed to occupy the site of the first church erected in the island in 1704, is an interesting building, and contains some antique tombs. Close to the village stands the old mansion of Nunwell, the seat of Sir H. Oglander, Bart., the representative of the oldest existing family in the island, whose founder, Richard Okelandro, came over with William the Conqueror. Their family chapel and burying-place are in the church of Brading. Population of Ryde 1851, 7147.

A short distance from Brading is the neat village of Yaverland, where there is a curious little church of great antiquity. From this point the tourist may return to Newport by Sandham Heath, Alverstone, and Ashey Down, from the summit of which there is one of the finest views in the island.

Another excursion, frequently made from Newport, is to Appuldercombe (Earl of Yarborough), the finest seat in the Isle of Wight, and Ventnor Cove. Proceeding by Carisbrook the tourist, about 3 miles from Newport, reaches Gatcombe, a handsome modern mansion, pleasantly situated. It was formerly the seat of one of the Worsleys. About three miles farther on is the populous village of Godshill. The church, a large and venerable pile, stands in a very picturesque situation, on the summit of a steep hill that rises in the centre of the village, and commands an extensive and beautiful prospect. This church was one of the six in the island which Fitz-Osborne, Earl of Hereford, bestowed along with the Priory of Carisbrook on the great Abbey of Lyra, in Normandy. In the interior of the church are the monuments of the Worsleys, from the fifteenth, to the nineteenth century, together with the monuments of some of the Leighs of Derbyshire and the Wight, whose daughters transferred by marriag these possessions to the Worsleys, ancestors of Lord Yarborough. In the village of Godshill is a grammar-school, founded above 200 years ago by one of the Worsley family. About a mile to the south of the village is Appuldercombe, which has long been the seat of this ancient and honourable family. It stands on the site of a very old manor-house, and was begun in 1710 by Sir Robert Worsley, and finished by his grandson Sir Richard. The mansion has four regular fronts of the Corinthian order, and a handsome colonade facing the south. It contains a large collection of paintings, drawings, and statues, some of which were in the old manor-house for many generations. The sculptures and drawings were collected by Sir Richard, the last Baronet, during the course of an extensive tour through Egypt, Turkey, Italy, and Greece, during the years 1785-7. The grounds, which are extensive, are laid out in admirable style, and adorned with fine beech trees and venerable oaks. On the most elevated point,

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ISLE OF WIGHT.-UNDERCLIFF.-VENTNOR COVE.

there is an obelisk 70 feet high, erected to the memory of Sir Robert Worsley the founder of the present mansion. The ruins of a castle, called Cookes' Castle, stand on the summit of a rocky hill about a mile distant. Sir Richard Worsley, the last Baronet, died here in 1813, and his niece, by her marriage, carried the mansion and estates to the first Earl of Yarborough.

It was in Appuldercombe that Worsley's History of the Isle of Wight was written. It was begun by Sir Robert, who died in 1747, continued by his son Sir Thomas, and finished and published by his grandson Sir Richard in 1781. Appuldercombe can be visited only by tickets, to be had at the office of the steward, in the town of Newport; and the days for strangers viewing it are Tuesdays and Fridays between the hours of 11 and 4 o'clock.

A short distance from Appuldercombe is the Undercliff* and the village at Ventnor Cove, which, so late as 1830, was little more than a hamlet, but has now become a populous village, in consequence of being greatly resorted to as a winter residence for invalids. The scenery in the immediate neighbourhood is very delightful. Ventnor Cove is well deserving of a visit, on account of its picturesqueness and beauty. A little to the south-west of the Cove is Steephill, and about a mile and a half farther on, the romantic village of St Lawrence, which contains the smallest church in Great Britain, it being only 20 feet long and 12 wide. From the heights behind the village, the beauties of the Undercliff are seen to great advantage. A pleasant road leads along the coast through Mirables to Sand Rock, where there is an excellent hotel. A romantic path leads from the hotel to a chalybeate spring, situated in the face of a bold gloom cliff, about 130 feet above the level of the sea. Over the spring there is a pretty cottage, erected by Mr Waterworth, a surgeon of Newport, who discovered its virtues in 1809. According to the analysis of Dr Marcet, the Sand Rock spring contains a larger proportion of alum and iron than any other mineral water yet discovered. It has been found very useful in the cure of those disorders which arise from nervous affections and debility. A short distance from the spring is Black-Gang Chine, a gloomy fissure in the rock, formed by the action of a stream of water, running seaward from the interior of the island. In some places the cliffs on either side of it are 500 feet high. The rocks are almost black in colour. There is scarcely a trace of vegetation, and the scenery is wild

• The Undercliff is a strip of land about six miles long and from a quarter to half a mile in breadth, which seems to have settled down and slipped towards the sea, exhibiting a jumble of rocks, overturned and broken mounds of earth, deep hollows, and numerous springs, forming falls of water, collecting into pools, and hurrying to the sea. (M. Simond). It appears that the Undercliff has been formed by a succession of landslips. One of these took place in the year 1799, when a large tract of the high cliff, extending to from 80 to 90 acres, near Niton, was, on a sudden, seen sinking and sliding towards the sea. Another of these landslips happened in the winter of 1810-1811, close to Bonchurch, and there was another in 1818. Sir James Clark is of opinion, that Torquay, in Devonshire, and the Undercliff, in the Isle of Wight, are the twe places on the English coast best suited to persons threatened with consumption.

and sublime. A large and commodious hotel stands immediately at the head of the chasm. A short distance from this is the pretty village of Niton, at the foot of St Catherine's Down, where there is a comfortable little inn, which may serve as a resting place and centre of observation for days, as all the most beautiful and striking scenes of the island are within short distances.

Returning to Ventnor, a short distance to the east, is Bonchurch, a lovely spot abounding in tasteful villas. The little parish church is of Saxon or early Norman construction. The Undercliff commences at Bonchurch, and the tract between this place and Niton is by far the most interesting part of the island. A short way far on is Luscombe Chine, and about a mile beyond it is Shanklin Chine, the most beautiful and most frequently visited of all those curious ravines, which form one of the most characteristic features of the coast of this island. Its appearance from below is as if the solid cliff had been rent in twain from top to bottom. The sides of the chasm present a striking contrast,―the one is almost perpendicular, with comparatively little vegetation,-the other is more shelving, and is shaded with tall trees or wild brushwood, and enlivened by some cottages most picturesquely situated. The descent to the Chine is by a rude winding path in the sea-cliffs, near a quiet little inn. Population of Ventnor 1851, 2569.

To vary the road the tourist may return to Newport by the villages of Newchurch and Arreton. On the Downs of Arreton are two large sepulchral barrows, which are generally referred to the period of the Danish invasion.

Another delightful excursion, and the last we shall notice, is to the north-west of the island, in the direction of Freshwater Bay and the Needles.+

About four miles from Newport is a beautiful spot called Park Cross, which combines some of the finest features of a gentle rural landscape. A mile farther on is Swainston, the fine country seat of Sir John Simeon, Bart. which occupies the site of an ancient palace of the Bishops of Winchester. A little beyond is the small village of Calbourn, with its antiquated little church, and near it is Westover, the fine mansion of the Hon. W. H. A. A’Court Holmes. Passing through a succession of shelving downs and quiet valleys we reach the river Yar, on the opposite bank of which is Freshwater village, the birth-place of the celebrated philosopher, Dr. Robert Hooke. At the western extremity of the singular peninsula formed by the Yar are the Needles, and the stupendous rocks and cliffs of Scratchell's, Alum and Tolland Bays. The Yar takes its rise just behind a creek called Freshwater Gate, in the centre of Freshwater Bay, and running due north, right across this end of the island, falls into the Solent Strait at Yarmouth. Near Freshwater is Norton Lodge, the seat of Admiral Sir G. E. Hamond, Bart., G.C.B. In Freshwater Bay there are two very remarkable isolated rocks --one

• Sir Richard Worsley says the term "chine" is applied to the backbone of an animal, which forms the highest ridge of the body. Hence the word chine may be thought peculiarly expres ve of a high ridge of land cleft abruptly down.

The word Needles is supposed to be a corruption of Nieder fels, and signifies Underc thus showing that precisely the same process took place with regard to the Needles that is going on at St Catherine's Point-that these rocks were originally a landslip which ha aled by the action of the sea into its present shape.

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of rather a conical form, and the other a bold rugged arch, which is now nearly 600 feet from the cliffs of the island, of which it once formed a solid part. Freshwater Cave is a romantic cavern, about 120 feet in depth. The view from the interior, looking seaward, is at once curious and beautiful. A little beyond it are three other caves of less magnitude. Scratchell's Bay is often visited by tourists. Its towering chalk precipices of the most dazzling whiteness are very remarkable for their narrow streaks of black flint, which make them resemble "a ruled sheet of paper." The great object of attraction, however, is an immense cave, which is entered by a magnificent arch 150 feet in height. The cliffs on this part of the coast are, in many places, 400 feet high, and afford shelter to the sea-fowl, which congregate here in prodigious numbers. Scratchall's Bay is bounded on the north by the celebrated Needle rocks, which are five in number, though only three of them now stand boldly out of the water. They have been formed by the action of the sea on the sharp point of land at the western end of the island. They are white, with a black base, and curiously streaked with the alternate strata of flints. The tallest of these rocks, which was about 120 feet high, disappeared in the year 1764, its base having been worn through by the continual action of the sea. It is evident, that, from the operation of the same cause, the present Needles will, at no distant period, wholly disappear, and that others will be formed in their stead out of the narrow extremity of the island. A lighthouse is built on the highest point of this western part of the island, at an elevation of 715 feet above the level of the sea At the Needles the tide rises only eight feet, while at Cowes it rises fifteen feet. Northward of the Needles is Alum Bay, which derives its name from the circumstance of that mineral being frequently picked up on the beach. This bay presents one of the most striking scenes on this coast. The cliff on one side consists of a vast precipice of chalk; on the other it is beautifully variegated by a succession of strata of different coloured sands and earths,-white, black, red, blue, and yellow; in some parts pure and unbroken, and in others blending intu every variety of tint.

A very interesting voyage may be made round the island, and the magnificent scenery just noticed is seen to much greater advantage from the sea than from the land. The order in which the various places along the coast present themselves in the course of this trip, may be learned by consulting the chart which accompanies this description.

PORTSMOUTH.

From Cowes the tourist may proceed to Portsmouth. The passage between these places seldom exceeds half an hour. Portsmouth is 73 miles from the Gene1 Post Office, London, by the old mail road; and 18 miles from Southampton. stands on an island, divided from the mainland by a small creek or arm This island, called Portsea, is about fifteen miles in circumfece and contains nearly 5100 acres of land of great fertility. The Romans

he sea.

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