526 LBTTBES FROM ENGLAND. 



up thft seventiy-tw® stone steps that led into the high old mined 

 keep, and found one of iny companions (who, is a military man^ 

 discoursing to a littk,gronp' of tourists, who had made a picnic' on 

 the ramparts, about the- nature-of the fortifications — breastworks— 

 and bastions, which cover' some fifteen or twenty acres nnd^f the 

 castle walls. While he was demonstrating how easily this ancient 

 stronghold could betaken by a modern besieger, I Speculated' on 

 the quiet way in *hioh a few types and a piinting 'press are, at the 

 present' moment, far more powerful restrainers of wayward sov- 

 ereigns, and more able' protectors of the rights of the jleople, thaii 

 the fierce battlements, and standing War- flogs, of th^old- castles of .' 

 two centuries ago.' The imagination is so excited' by these strong.' 

 olcl castles, now tast crumbling ini» dust, that -we wonder what the 

 people of two hundred years hence wiU have, to be romantic and 

 picturesque- about, as emblems of power in a by-gone age.- An old 

 printiiig-press, or galvanic battery, perhaps ! No — even they' will 

 be^ melted up for their value, as old metal. ' ^ 



We drOve from Carisbrook, to the extreme end of the Island-^ 

 saw the Needles, the tolored sands, and the whitecliffs of -Albion, 

 andTreturned by the south side. What pleased me more than even 

 the sea views, an!d the bold bays, and snowy ohflfs (perhaps from 

 novelty-), were \hd Downs — -those long reaches of gently sloping sur- 

 face, covered with very .short- grass — ras close and fine as the finest 

 lawn. They are so' smooth and hard, and the air is so pure and 

 exhilarating, the temperature so bracing and delightful, that one is 

 tempted into walking — or even running— -miles and miles, upon 

 them. Here and there, mingled with ftie grass,- on the breeziest 

 part&of the Downs,- 1 saw tufts of heather, in full bloom, only twV' 

 or\hree inches high-^their purple bells embroidering, as Avith the 

 most delicate pattern, the;£ragrant turf. Hei'ds oif sheep graze upon 

 these Downs, and the flavor of the mutton, as you may suppose, is 

 not despised by those who cannot live upon: air, however elastib -and 

 exhilarating. ^ ' '-' 



All over the Island, the roads, sometimes -broad — but often 

 mere narrow lanes — are bordered by high hawthorn hedges — SO 

 that frequently you drive for a mile or inoi'e, without getting a peep 

 beyond these leafy walls of verdure. I could imagine that in May, 



