INTRODUCTION. XXXI 



scantling.* Other copses, various in extent, are scattered over 

 the North-eastern quarter of the island, the soil of which is in 

 general a stiff clay, excepting immediately at the foot of the 

 chalk downs and westward towards the Medina, where it 

 assumes more of a gravelly nature. 



To the South of the downs in East Medina the lower green 

 sandstone predominates ; the country undulates more remark- 

 ably, and rises into numerous often abrupt eminences, present- 

 ing a varied surface of corn and pasture land, heath, down, 

 craggy cliffs, with marshy valleys and deep boggy thickets. 

 Towards the South and South-eastern coast-line of this hun- 

 dred the chalk reappears, as a second, much interrupted and far 

 shorter range, in the steep round-topped escarpments of St. 

 Catherine's (Niton), St. Boniface (Shanklin), and Rew Downs, 

 rising with an abruptness and to an elevation sufficient to give 

 almost the dignity of a moutainous background to the majes- 

 tic and picturesque terraces of Eastend and Undercliff, lying 

 immediately at their feet. The great longitudinal chalk ridge 

 terminates suddenly, at its eastern extremity, in the Culver 

 Cliff, which rises perpendicularly to about 400 feet, forming the 

 northernmost point of Sandown Bay and the South-eastern 

 boundary of the peninsula known by the name of Bembridge 

 Island. The same ridge, after its dislocation at the valley of 

 the Medina, is continued westward, with but little interruption, 

 to its termination in the bold and lofty headland whose talus 

 forms the magnificent cliffs of Freshwater and Alum Bay; 

 whilst the numerous spurs or escarpments, that diverge in all 

 directions from the principal longitudinal chain of summits, 

 form hollows or basin-like valleys and sinuosities between 

 them, whose steep declivities are mostly clothed with patches 

 of hanging copsewood. 



The island is divided, nearly its entire length, in a due North 

 and South direction, by the river Medene or Medina, which, 

 winding from its source along the bottom of a boggy valley as 

 an insignificant stream, becomes navigable immediately below 

 Newport for vessels of small burden. It also serves as the 



* In the early part of the late war, when oak commanded a high price for 

 the navy, the present Sir William Oglander cut down, on his estate at Nnnwell, 

 timber of this description lo the value, it is said, of £80,000 sterling. 



