THE ISLE q:? wight. ' 6?? 



jjrjien these Ijedges are all white with blossoms,, the whole Island 

 must be a yery gay-landscape — but just now, they only served to 

 tonfirm me in my opinion of. the Englishman's fondness for seclu- 

 sion _ and privacy, in his own demesne. Just in proportion, to the 

 sipallness of his place, his desire to shut out aU the rest of the world 

 ii^creases— -so that if he only owns half an acre, his hedge shall be 

 ^ght feet liigh, and the sanctity of the paradise within remains in- 

 viplate. The solid, high, well-built stonewall around ?ome of the 

 little cottage and villa places, of half an acre, on the south side of 

 the Island, astonished me, anti, gave me, a new understanding <rf the 

 saying, that ^' every man's house is his castle." Here, at least,fl 

 thought, it is clear that people understand what is meant by private 

 rights, and intend-to have tbem respected. 



It was not until I reached the , pretty villages of Bowdhurch, 

 Shanklin, and Ventnor, that my ideal of the Isle of Wight was re- 

 alised.. These villages lie .on the south side of the Island, backed 

 by steep hills, and sloping to the -sea. The climate is almost per- 

 ■ fection. It is neither, hot in summer norcold in winter, and though ■ 

 oppji to all the sea-breezes, the latter §eem shorn of all their violence 

 here. The consequence is, they enjoy that perfect marriage of the 

 l^nd and sea so rarely witnessed in northern climates. The finest 

 groves and woods, the richest shrubbery and flower-gardens, the 

 ijQost emerald-like glades of turf, he;-e run dowu almost to the bea,ch, 

 and you have all the liixuriant beauty of vegetation,, in its loveliest 

 forms, joined to ^H the sublimity, life and excitenjeniof the ocean 

 , views. As to the climate, you may judge of -it? mildness and uni- 

 formity, when I tell you that the bay trees of the Mediterranean 

 grow here on the lawns, as luxuriantly as snow-balls do at home, and 

 ^chsias, as tall as your head, make rich masses in almost every 

 garden, and stand the winter as well here, as lilaos or syringoeado 

 with'us. In the neighborhood of Shanklin, I saw a charming old 

 parsonage hqu'se-^the very picture of spacious ease and iRonjforfc-' 

 with its great bay windows, its picturesque gables, and its thatched 

 roof^quite embowered in tall myrtles— Roman myrtles— one of 

 our cjierished green-honge plants, that here, have grown t^iirtyior. 

 forty feet high, quite aboye the eaves ! Bays, Portugal laurels, hoi- 

 Ijes and China roses, surround this palsonage, and never lose their 



