4.34 
ISLE of 
the weft are thofe rocks called the Needles. The air is 
healthy, and the inhabitants am in general long-lived ; the 
foil is fertile, and the production of corn in one year is 
faid to be equal to the confumption of eight; confe- 
quently, confiderable quantities are fent.to different ports 
of England; tobacco-pipe-clay is found, and large quan¬ 
tities exported, as likewife of a fine land, ufed in the ma¬ 
nufacture of giafs. 
This ifland was known to the Romans by the name of 
Ve£lis, or VeEla-, and by the Britons called Guith, at length 
foftened into Wight. Vefpalian is faid to have brought it 
under the fubjeCtion of the Romans. In the fixth cen¬ 
tury it was reduced by Cerdic the Saxon, who drove 
away or flaughtered the remaining Britilh inhabitants. 
In the year 1066 it was invaded by Tofti, brother of king 
Harold, with a piratical fleet of Flemings, who laid the 
inhabitants under contribution. It was afterwards con¬ 
quered by William Fitz-Ofborn, marfhal to William the 
Conqueror, who was the firft lord of the ifland. In the 
year 1377, it was ravaged by the French, who made a fe- 
cond attempt in the year 1403, but were then beaten off. 
Fitz-Oiborn’s fon being baniihed, Henry I. granted the 
ifland to Rivers earl of Devon; but in the reign of Ed¬ 
ward I. it was fbrrendered to the crown. Henry Beau¬ 
champ, earl of Warwick, was by Henry VI. crowned 
King of Wight, but this new and extraordinary title died 
with him. It has a governor and lieutenant-governor 
appointed by the crown. The principal towns are New¬ 
port, Newtown, Yarmouth, Cowes, and Ride; which fee 
under their refpeCtive names in this work. 
The Ifle of Wight enjoys a very commodious fituation, 
being nearly in the centre of that part of the Englifh coaft 
which faces the fouth, and at a very convenient diftance 
from it. Both thefe circumftances are happily favourable 
to its commercial and other intercourfes, as well with the 
county of Hants in particular (of which it is a confi- 
derable part) as with the parent ifland in general. To 
the fouth, as it lies nearly oppofite to Cape la Hogue in 
France, and at the diltance of about eighteen leagues, 
the fea on that fide has to.the eye the full effect of an 
open and unbounded ocean. This is enlivened with a 
view of thofe floating caftles which are the pride and 
bulwark of the Britilh empire, and afford fuch a fcene of 
grandeur, fuch a combination of nature and art, as per¬ 
haps the whole world cannot equal. Thefe entertainments 
are no where more frequently or advantageoufly exhi¬ 
bited than at the eaft and fouth-eaft parts of the ifland. 
Indeed the interior channel, called the Solent, prefents us 
with the fame objeifls in kind; and, if they fall fhort in 
refpeft to magnitude, they make amends by the great 
frequency of their appearance, and the natural profpefts 
are far more diverfified. The breadth of this water is 
greater or lefs as the lands on either fide run in'a ftraight 
or winding direction. In raoft places it may be five or 
fix miles over, but in fome, efpecially toward the weft, 
not near fo far. Oppofite Hurft-caftle, there is fo great 
a projection of the land toward the ifland, as to leave a 
paflage by water of little more than a Angle mile. There 
is a tradition, which has been credited by fome refpeClable 
writers, that here was once a complete ilthmus. The 
ftory is, that the Carthagenians, who ^n their profperity 
engroffed much of the commerce of thofe times, had fet- 
tlements in the Scilly illands; that they bought up the 
tin of Cornwall, conveyed it by the above fuppofed 
ifthmus to the fouth of . what is now called the Ille of 
Wight, and from thence tranfported it to Gaul, and to 
the ports of the Mediterranean. We are not antiquarians 
enough either to eflablifh this faft or to confute it. It 
feems, however, pretty certain,, that, if this were ever the 
cafe at all, it muff have been more than two thoufand 
years back. The Romans of that time confidered this 
part of our country as an ifland ; and as fuch alfo it was laid 
down both in Pliny’s and Ptolemy’s Geography, though 
• he former placed it by miftake between Britain and Ireland. 
A complete tour round the ifland by water is^ in the 
W IGHT. 
fummer feafon, a very agreeable dxcur/ion. In this cafe, 
fuppoflng our departure to be from Cowes to the eaft, we 
then pafs the royal hofpital at Haflar, the town and har¬ 
bour of Portfmouth, South-Sea Caftle, &c. on the left, 
and the pleafantly-rifing village of Ride, the feats of St. 
John’s Appley, and Priory, on the right, in our way to 
Spithead and St. Helen’s, places which we need not fay 
are of note as the rendezvous of the royal navy. Thence 
we proceed to the fouthern coatt, commonly called the 
back of the ifland, which affords many marine bbjeffs of 
curiofity. Such are thofe prodigious rocks and cliffy 
which bound and guard this part of our coart, and can 
only be feen to advantage at fea. There is fomething ex¬ 
tremely amufing to the eye in thefe huge mafies of rough 
materials, “ A fortrefs built by nature for herfelf,” as 
Shakefpeare calls it. If they give us no idea of the beau¬ 
tiful, they certainly do of the fublime, as they have an 
air of grandeur and magnificence which is awfully pleafing 
and attractive. Even their rude deformity has a fitnels 
in it to contend with the rude element which they are 
meant to controul. One fees with no lefs fatisfaftion, 
with what fury they are daily alfaulted, and with what 
indignant fcorn they repel the onfet. In a word, though 
they may be defpifed as objects of deformity, they are in 
reality our very good friends. They fay to the encroach¬ 
ing foe, in the words of Him who appointed them their 
llation, “ Hitherto lhalt thou come, but no further; and 
here fhall thy proud waves be ftayed.” 
About two miles to the weftward is Sandown, or Sand- 
ham Fort. This and the cattles at Cowes and Yarmouth 
were built by Henry VIII. out of the ruins of the reli¬ 
gious houfes. Nearly adjoining to this is Sandown Cot¬ 
tage, the rural feat of the late John Wilkes, efq. cham¬ 
berlain of London. About a mile from hence we ap¬ 
proach a ftupendous chain of rocks, called Shanklin 
Chine, which, being a confiderable natural curiofity, as 
fuch may deferve a mention. The chine, as they call it, 
(for what reafon we know not,) is made by an opening 
of one cf the cliffs above-mentioned. It appears a3 
though it were rent from top to bottom.. The mouth of 
the gap ftretches to a vaft width, on the one fide almoft 
perpendicular, on the other more fhelving. The bottom 
is, for the molt part, a level fmooth beach, where one 
may walk at low water, and furvey thefe ftupendous 
heights with pleafure. The fide which is molt upon a 
declivity is mounted by means of a large number of in¬ 
artificial fteps, by which we afcend to a little cottage, 
which is kept open as a houfe of accommodation for fuch 
company as either curiofity or difiipation may happen to 
colleift. The method is, either for fuch parties to carry 
with them their own provifion, and get it there made 
ready for their ufe, or to take the chance of what the 
houfe or vicinage will afford them: of the latter fort, 
crabs and lobfters in their feafon, and in the higheft ex¬ 
cellence, are feldom or never wanting. A few miles fur¬ 
ther on will bring us to another place, equally if not 
more frequented for the fame pleafurable purpofes. The 
name of this is Steep-hill, the fituation of a delightful 
villa, built by the right honourable Hans Stanley, then 
governor of the ifland, and afterwards the property and 
refidence of the honourable Wilbraham Tollemache, who 
planted a vinery. The building is in the genteel cottage- 
tarte, adorned with a variety of rich and curious paint¬ 
ings within, and without by a pleafure-garden, fhrubbery. 
See. Near this is alfo a houfe of entertainment, to which 
lirangers are invited by feenes which are romantic beyond 
defenption. Here we not only enjoy a fine open pro- 
fpect of the fea, (from which the diftance is about a fur¬ 
long,) but are in full view of a large traft of land which 
has not its parallel. It commonly goes by the name of 
Under-Cliff, becaufe included between the fea on one 
hand and a high cliff on the other. This cliff extends 
fome miles in length, a great part of which is fo regularly 
perpendicular, that at a fmall diftance one would really 
take it for fome old rampart-wall that had forinerly been 
raifed, 
