535 



their leaves flat and quite entire, and when loaded with their berries 

 of vivid scarlet, have a superb effect from the greater breadth of dark 

 green polished surface (reflecting back the sun's rays) they present 



one mile N.W. by W. of Shanklin, commanding a fine view, and flanked on one side 

 by a deep ravine or den, as our northern neighbours, the Scotch, would call it (we 

 have the same word in many Hampshire names of places, as Bordean, Bramdean, 

 &c), along whose bottom winds a clear, but shallow brook, overhung by precipitous 

 banks covered with trees and shrubs, the natural growth of the place. Under the 

 eastern side of the hill is the little rude hamlet of America, and at its western base 

 the picturesque homestead of Apse farm, where grows the finest specimen of the 

 Wych elm to be seen in the island. 



In medio ramos annosaque brachia pandit 

 Ulinus opaca, ingens. 



The late Lord Yarborough planted the top of the hill with pines {P. Pinaster), and 

 caused broad grass walks to be cut through the wood by a winding ascent to the sum- 

 mit, for the convenience of the few that resort to and joy in its cool and green retreats, 

 judiciously leaving all beside for Nature to embellish in her own wild way. 



A more delightful scene can hardly be imagined than is offered by this fresh and 

 verdant spot, when on some glorious morning in April or May, the atmosphere radiant 

 with an intensity of sun-light such as no season but spring and early summer exhi- 

 bits, we tread the solitary mazes of Apse Castle, a blooming wilderness of primroses, 

 wood anemonies, hyacinths, sweet violets, and a hundred other lowly and fragrant 

 things, overtopped by the taller and crimson-stained wood spurge, early purple orchis, 

 and the pointed hoods of the spotted-leaved wake robin, the daisy-besprinkled track 

 leading us upward, skirted by mossy, fern-clad banks on one hand, and by shelving 

 thicket on the other, profusely overshadowed by ivy-circled oak and ash, the graceful 

 birch and varnished holly, beneath which spring the berry-bearing alder, hazel, spin- 

 dle-tree, the dogwood and guelder rose, with here and there the " bonnie broom,'' and 

 a mountain ash, slight and airy as a sapling, over all which the woodbine creeps pro- 

 fuse, and the black bryony (Tamus communis) loves to twine, displaying its hand- 

 broad, overlapping leaves of translucent green, that, bright and polished as a mirror, 

 dance and glisten to the sun like a descending stream of foliage. Arrived at the sum- 

 mit, what a luxury to recline on the couch of silvered green which the rabbit-grass 

 {Agrostis setacea) spreads thickly over the wide pathway, the softest, driest, and most 

 elastic of turf, or stretched beneath the old hollies or birches to listen to the nightin- 

 gale, that even at noontide is pouring forth from twilight covert incomparable har- 

 mony, till returning darkness calls her, unwearied, to take part in the nocturnal 

 concert with her then numerous rivals, 



" And all night long her amorous descant sing." 



Such botanists as have no objection to prick their fingers in the attempt to loosen, 

 without cutting it, the Gordian knot that binds the brambles together with a tie of 

 sadly disheartening complexity, will find as much of the pleasure and pain attendant 

 on the business as they can desire in the many interesting species or varieties of 

 Rubus that flourish in the dell {vulgo Tinker's Hole) at Apse Castle. 



