The Isle of Wight; its past and present condition, and future prospects

Front matter

ISLE 0>f 'WIGHT, 1 1 Y US. ED 1 E ET M ilJB 2 IE ES Q ■ WIMCHESTEIR, PITBLISIHED BY B.E.GIiWOVU. _-IGl_ SrEjEET. FOIl THE F__OP_llE_*OE J-_- ROBBI!* .. iONBOH. SIMl'i-iN * U&B.S __«___ . THE ISLE OF WIGHT ITS PAST AND PRESENT CONDITION A Nit FUTURE PROSPECTS; ii \ ROBERT MUDIK. E$Q AUTHOR OF " HAMP3HIRK," "THF RURAL UBRARV," " THE FOUR SEASO.M..," " MAN," "THE BRITISH NATURALIST," ETC. ETC. LONDON: PUBLISHED FOR THE PROPRIETOR, HY SIMPKIN AND MARSHALL. STATIONERS' COURT, LUDGATE Hll.l. WINCHESTER. D. E. GILMOUR. HIGH STREET. AMD SOLD BY ALL RESPECTABLE BOOKSELLERS IN THE ISLAND Winchester: D. E. Gilmuur, High-street. LIST OF THE PLATES. Vignette Title Map of the Island , . . * . 17 Needles — Alum Bay ... 22 Shanklin Chine ........ 35 Chale Bay ........ 36 Black-Gang Chine ....... 99 East Cowes .... .... 116 Huhst Castle . . ..... 118 Coi.wkll Bay, Tolland Bay, Alum Bay, anu Needles . . 119 Freshwater Bay ....... 122 Culver Bay ........ 123 Hyde, from the Pier ....... 126 East Cowes Castle ....... 164 Newport ......... 167 Cahisurook ........ 177 Castle ....... 178 Brixton Chur< h — Niton Church ..... 182 Yarmouth . . . . . ... 187 Hyde, from the Parade ...... 208 Ventnor Castle ....... 210 St. Helen's Church— Brading Church .... 213 Shanklin ......... 214 Yaverland Church— Bonchurch ..... r. THE ISLE OF WIGHT, and the CHANNEL ISLANDS.

Introduction

. Though these insular parts of the British empire are of small extent, compared with what, in respect of them, may be termed the mainland, and small even as compared with some of the Scottish isles, yet they are spots of much and varied interest. They are this, in every point of view in which they can be contemplated ; and that man must be mindless indeed, who is not interested in their description, or delighted with a visit to them, or to any one of them. The beauty of their scenery holds out a strong attraction to the mere lover of sights. Their healthful breezes, and the careering and glittering waters which encompass their shores — shores which are striking at every point and at most points sublime, render them more than medicine to the in valid ; for in these he may purify himself in nature's own bath, and in that he may inhale something more renovating than ever chemist distilled from alembic.

To those who give themselves up to toil and trouble — whether of business or of fashion, for eleven live-long months of the year, in the mud and murkiness of the metropolis, the twelfth month —

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. not the last month of the year certainly — spent, or rather saved, in any of those Islands, no matter which, would be, in real enjoyment, worth all the other eleven. To the stu dent of nature, that is, of the living productions of nature, they offer a triple enjoyment ; for he may, in one and the same morning, study the products of the land, of the sea, and of that region of perpetual spring the tidal beach, which is alternately under the dominion of the one and the other, and whose plants and animals are therefore the true am phibia of nature. To him whose love of creation is more fervent and deep, and who desires to understand, from their results, those workings of natural power which, when they are in action, are too mighty for mortal view, these islands offer a higher treat than is perhaps to be met with in any other part of the kingdom, and certainly more than is to be met with anywhere else in England.

Everywhere through out the country, and indeed throughout all countries, we can perceive that things as they now exist, have been brought into their present condition by a series of operations of far more energetic nature than that common surface-action which we see carried on from day to day, by the sun, the atmosphere, and the ordinary motion and distribution of the waters ; but throughout England generally, we see only one side of the question — the changed, but not the changer. In these Islands, however, we see both ; and the sea has oblig ingly worked their shores into such bold escarpments, that we can read them as a book while we sail or travel along. Future opportunities will offer for our entering a little, though only a very little, into the details ; but we may, in the meantime, just hint at the tale of an epoch long gone by, which the cliffy shores of these delightful little Islands have to tell.

In great part of the Isle of Wight, the strata, not only the chalk, and the oolite, and other formations under the chalk, but the tertiary formation, whether marine, estuaral, or lacustrine, which overlays the chalk, have been heaved upwards from beneath, until they stand almost on edge ;

INTRODUCTION.

. and it seems to have been in this way, or, at all events, in this part of the Channel, that the disruption of England from the continent was begun, — whether that beginning took place before or after the land was raised above the sur face of that ocean whose waters must have rolled over it during the lapse of centuries which we cannot number. Then, in the Channel Islands, we have vestiges of at least one of the instruments employed by nature in uplifting the land, and breaking or tending to break its continuity. There are some primary rocks in those islands — not primary in their materials ; for in the materials of creation, there is no first and no last — all are the productions of one Almighty fiat, which called them into perfection in briefer time than the finger could point, or the eye twinkle.

Neither are they primary as forming part of the upper rock which im mediately supports the plantrbearing soil ; for the position of the strata in the Isle of Wight shows that even the up per tertiary beds were deposited before the Guernsey granite, as it is designated, arose in its power from the depths of the earth, and modelled and disposed of the surface-strata, according to the pleasure of Him, before whose agents all the armies that ever were mustered by men, are more light and helpless than thistle-down on the wing of the hurri cane. What may have occurred between those primary points of rock, and the upheaved strata in the Isle of Wight, we shall not now enquire. But nature is competent to the task ; and in our own times there have been among the giant mountains of America outpourings of volcanic mud and water, which would have been quite adequate to the scoop ing out of the Channel, and the dispersion of the displaced materials far and wide along the shores of the land, or over the bottom of the sea.

We mention these matters, not because it is our intention to go formally into the geology of all, or of any, of these Is lands ; but just in order to show that they are linked together by nature, by a tie which makes each one explanatory b

INTRODUCTION.

. of the others. Nor will it fail to strike every reflective reader, how curious it is, that, even in a civil sense of the word, those Islands which nature has thus connected, would not be dissevered. When the Conqueror — it is more correct to say the coming, for Harold was the usurper — got possession of England, along with Normandy, the small isles in the Channel, as being more proximate to Normandy, belonged to that ; and the inhabitants were, and are still, in manners, in appearance, and in speech, the same people as the Nor mans. But when the successors of William lost their French provinces, or, to express it more truly, when the people of England got rid of the burden of those provinces, — of the expence of paying for keeping them by main force out of the hands of their natural sovereign, the people of those little isles clung to England, and they have continued to do so to this day, and with a dialect of foreigners on their lips, have stood longer and more sturdily for their pre rogative of Englishmen, than perhaps ever was done by so mere a handful of people.

It is true that nature has fenced their lovely little dwellings with the munition of rocks, and it may be equally true that the attraction of one islander to ward another is more powerful than either toward a conti nental; but still the conduct of the Channel islanders, though a small, is a sweet flower in the chaplet of well-maintained national independence. These are matters which the vulgar, whether great or small, learned or unlearned, are very apt to overlook, though, to the reflective, they have greater charms than the mere gratification of the senses, pure and purifying as is the sen sual gratification which all who have human bodies cannot fail in deriving from the mere sight of such lovely scenes as meet one at every turn in these Islands. There is indeed one, though only one, description of persons to whom this portion of sensual enjoyment avails not, — they who emulate the dog, and have more pleasure in the scent of carrion, than in all the beauty and fragrance of nature's own parterre. Even such have no occasion to shun the Islands under con-

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. sideration ; for we can assure them that entertainment for man and beast — conjointly or severally, is nowhere better, or more easily obtained. It is unquestionably not for such, that these chosen spots of nature were formed ; and yet we know of few places which are better calculated to inspire good taste and kindly feel ings, with love and kindness for all that lives, than those for which we proffer the humble task of cicerone. As for those whom we would most wish to please, our task with them will be a light one ; for we shall have only to point the way, and they themselves will find out the enjoyment — and it will be all the more sweet and gratifying, that we do not break in upon the train of' their reflections. To begin at the beginning then, the Isle of Wight, the Channel Islands, the proximate parts of Hampshire, and the interjacent waters must be held as per eminence, the tour, or the summer retreat, — as time and other circumstances may render them, or any portion of them, available.

We shall suppose, that the grand South Western Railway is completed ; and its completion will be near, or haply arrived at, before our lighter labours are at an end ; and then we may say that the Isle of Wight will be as near to Lon don as South End or Woolwich had wont to be. From St. Paul's to Southampton pier, the distance will not be four hours, or anything like it, and the rails upon this line are so well laid, the materials under them, in general, so sound, and the engineers and all employed so au fait at their business, that trundling along is as easy and safe as being borne in an Indian palanquin. There is no danger, no trouble, no need of expense on the road ; for one has only to sit down at London, read the double broad sheet of the Times or the Chronicle, and before one gets to the Co lophon, one may rise up at Southampton, and gladden one's eyes with the sweetest compound of sea and land that is any where to be met with. Not much is to be seen by the way, although much of the intervening country is very beautiful ;

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. but this is all the better, inasmuch as one feels the full force of the contrast. The ride to Portsmouth is shorter than this in distance, and some twice the length in time. It is different, *but wTe will not say better or worse — c ha que un a son gout. At the last-named place, there are the mighty memorials of the British navy ; and at the first there is a choice of the beau ties of nature. A lover of forests, and of the memories of things gone by, may take the New Forest in his way to the Island, and here he has a choice of trips, all of them of the most varied character ; perfect novelties to such as have been accustomed to towns and ploughed fields only. One may take this western tour of the Forest — through the northern parts to the Avon, thence to Christchurch, and so on to Lymington — having a delightful view of the Island on the latter part of the way.

Then the passage to Yar mouth is but a mere ferry ; and " mine host of the Bugle." though his house is the smaller, is an excellent ornitholo gist for the museum, — or the table. Again, one may take the centre tour quite through Lyndhurst, the metropolis of the Forest, or the eastern one, through woods and waters and memorials of monks ; and the sea-passage and land-fall are the same in all. These routs are all quite different ; and, as they are all beautiful in their way, we should say that the longest is the best — enjoyment being measured by the mile in this part of the country : and there is this ad vantage connected with them that, while they are admira ble in themselves, and quite a treat to those who can go no further, they do not, to any extent, spoil the main subject ; any more than its several parts destroy the effect of each other.

If the Isle of Wight is the chief object, the best and quickest way is to steam or sail onwards to Cowes ; and so get into the middle of the Island, after a veiy short trip, which may be made either by land or by boat up the river Medina. On the voyage from Southampton to Cowes, the

INTRODUCTION.

. Channel is never so wide as to throw either shore into dim distance, nor are the shores so approachable by anything save a mere skiff, that the objects on land can be hid by the mere mud-wall of the shore. Hence, there is an ad vantage over what can be enjoyed in skirting along the single coast of even the richest country, — as, when the pas senger tires of the one side, he has only to turn his glance to the other. The succession of landscapes, on both hands, is good ; and indeed there is a panorama of exquisite scenery nearly all the way. This approach to the Isle of Wight, and that island itself, lie at the vestibule of all the voyages, unless those to the north of Europe. To France, this is by much the most delightful way by which the pleasure-tourist can reach France or any part of the Continent through France ; and it is also the best from which to take shipping for the south and south-west of the world, whatever may be the final des tination.

From Southampton to Havre is only 124 miles on the direct line ; and from Portsmouth it is less. The distance to Jersey is 122 ; and in moderate weather there is not the least danger in any of the trips across the Channel. Generally speaking too, it is a bustling sea, never without craft of some kind or other, unless when the fury of the south-west is up. The narrow seas are especially calm and safe in all ordinary weather ; and yet the water is never stag nant. If there is no wind to curl the water, there is a current running gently the one way or the other, with very little pause ; because the double ebb and flow keep up a continual motion, and light barks can thus glide along with out much assistance from the wind. This movement of the water keeps the air stirring in gentle zephyrs, even at times when there is no motion of its general mass, and this gives a healthiness to the whole place, which is perhaps not equalled upon any other coast in the country.

To the inha bitants of the western parts of central England generally, and to those of the metropolis in particular, it must be an inestimable advantage, that a trip to the Isle of Wight has

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. been reduced to the brief measure of a morning's ride, at no labour, and very little expense. This Island will, ot course, be the grand place of resort ; and it has the advantage that visitors can set up their temporary staff in the exposure or the scene which likes them best, and yet be able to command all the variety by which they are sur rounded, which variety is so great, that it cannot be ex hausted in many weeks — even in many months. There is this advantage too, that no one place of summer resort in the Island is so large that those who resort to it can impair its real beauty and enjoyment, by spoiling it with the freaks of town. At Ryde, there has been a little threat ening of this, and the rural quietude has been in some measure broken in upon by buildings and manners which are assuredly not in keeping with the place.

Even on the south-east, where the Island and the sea are the whole visible world, a few spots have most unwisely got a good deal of the townish air ■ but notwithstanding, we may hope that the lease of nature in these parts is still good for a century to come. Still another circumstance may be mentioned, wherein the resort of much additional company to the Isle of Wight, during the season of rural and marine enjoyments, will be as conducive to the moral health of the Island, as to the physical health of the visitors. It must not be understood that the humbler class of the people here, especially those upon the coast of the back of the Island, which is the true place to go to, were like the simple inhabitants of some pastoral district, far in the hills, whose manners would be in peril from a little of the vice of town servants.

On the contrary, they have for many years been smugglers — a class of persons, who, taken upon the whole, must, under any circumstances, be both wretched and vicious ; so that any change which can happen them, be it what it may, must be a change for their good. " He must," says the pro verb, " be a very good man who can afford to cheat another without being the worse for it ;" and, a fortiori, he must be

INTRODUCTION.

. a still better man who can live by the habitual practice of cheating his country, and be quite honest towards his neigh bours. The law against which the smuggler offends may be impolitic and unjust — between which there is little dif ference in the case of a revenue law ; and we hesitate not to say that the law, in virtue of which the people of the Isle of Wight were made smugglers, was, and is, a very impolitic law ; but still the moral guilt, and the demoralising conse quences, are just the same to the individual when he breaks a bad law, as when he breaks a good one. If the law is bad, by all means get it repealed in the proper way ; but, as long as it is the law, obey it. While the temptation to smuggle remains, the labouring classes never will acquire, and never can be expected to acquire, regular and industrious habits, — more especially if wines or spirituous liquors form part of the articles smuggled.

On such a coast as the back of the Isle of Wight, twice or ten times the revenue on the smuggled articles, and even as many times their value, could not prevent smuggling; for that coast is such as that it cannot be guarded, excepting at a few points. Therefore, unless for the resort of strangers, the humbler classes would continue their smuggling propen sities, and their disregard and dislike of honest labour. But the resort of company to the new villages, which villages can not be too generally spread around this particular coast, will gradually train the people to industrious habits ; a tone of moral feeling will be generated along with those habits ; and the people will cease to have any desire to waste their time or to peril their lives and safety, by so demoralising a pur suit. That government should, by reducing the duty, put an end to the smuggling at once, would unquestionably be the wiser and the better plan ; but the next to it, is raising the people's tone and character by other means, and the means which we have mentioned, are perhaps the best for the ac complishment of such a purpose. Coast smuggling, in so small a place as the Isle of Wight, is not only injurious to the morals of the people on the shores ; c

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. for the distance is so short, that it extends its baneful influ ence through the whole Island ; and therefore every part will be advantaged by its abolition, whether politically or morally — by force it never can completely be done. Now, there is no reason why the means which we have suggested — or rather mentioned, for they need no suggestion, should not be extended equally to the inland villages as to the coast, by a general distribution of seasonable visitors all over the Is land. We shall have occasion to mention these villages more particularly afterwards ; but we may say that all of them are very rural and pleasant, and some perfectly de lightful ; and that there is little squalor and misery about them to offend the eyes of those who are more prone to take offence at the sight of poverty than to relieve it.

Indeed, we feel quite convinced that, when the propensity to smuggling shall be cured, the peasantry of the Isle of Wight will be inferior to none in England, either for comfortable enjoy ment, or for moral worth. They have, generally speaking, a rich soil, and a delightful climate, which together are ca pable of rewarding their industry to the fullest extent ; and though, even in their present state, we have no desire to find fault with them, or to describe them as being worse than others ; yet it would be very delightful if, charming as the place is, in a physical point of view, the appearance and cha racter of the humbler classes of the people were the grand predominating charm. This would not only be very de lightful in as far as they themselves are concerned, but it might be wholesome and not altogether unprofitable to those who resort thither for their annual relaxation and recovery of tone ; — for we do not bring a very severe, or very unfounded censure against these parties, when we say that they would not enjoy themselves less rationally, by carrying a quiet rural virtue or two home with them from the country, and having it in their power to be as loud and as learned in praise of the dramatis personæ as of the scene, when business or pleasure demands that that scene should be shifted. Though the Isle of Wight was at one time a sort of sepa-

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. rate holding, though upon one occasion the Lord of it had it to himself, and though it still has its Governor in name, though slightly, if at all, in power, yet there is nothing to distinguish it from the adjacent parts of the mainland, saving perhaps that the people are more exclusively Norman in their blood and aspect. It is true that they have some peculiarities of speech, both in wTords and in pronunciation ; but still these are not greater than we sometimes meet with in two adjoining counties, or even in two distant districts of the same county. Thus, for instance, if one part of a county is upland and bleak, and another is low-lying, rich, and damp, one who is observant, and possesses a discriminating ear, can distinguish a native and resident of the one place, from a native and resident of the other, by the difference of the tones of their voices.

This, though not generally noticed, is what we might be prepared to expect; for the atmosphere which a human being has used from infancy, in breathing and in speaking, must have some influence in modifying the organs of speech, and by necessary consequence, the language. There can hardly be anything of this kind generally applicable to the Isle of Wight ; because the soil there is exceedingly diversified, and the diversities are so proximate to each other in place, that their influence must be blended together in almost every individual. Therefore, in as far as the inhabitants are concerned, an Englishman cannot be said to " go abroad " when he makes the short and delightful voyage between the Island and the mainland. When, however, he extends his excursion as far as the Channel Islands, — which every one who can find it conve nient ought to do, he will find himself quite in another country; not indeed in so far as the general government, and the original race of the people are concerned ; but in respect of their language, their common laws, and many of their customs.

This is an additional inducement to visit the Channel Islands, over and above the healthiness of the voyage, and the richness, and in some respects, the physical novelty of the Islands themselves. The visitor will find c

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. himself in a miniature Britain, consisting of three little king doms, of which he may, if it suits his fancy, consider Jersey as the England, Guernsey as the Ireland, Alderney as the Scotland, and Cerq and Herm as the " odds and ends ;" and the three principal parts agree in general position, only the miniature England and Scotland are, of the group, the most distant from each other. He will find also that, though there are not the same distinctions among the people as there are in the three component parts of the British empire, there are physical differences, as great between the little spots themselves, proximate as they are to each other, and similar as the climate must be in them all. Nor will he fail to observe, that, in comparison, there is a wildness of nature about Cerq, somewhat analogous, in comparison, to what occurs in the Scottish Isles, but very different in character.

Such, in brief outline, are some of the inducements which every man, and more especially every Briton, has to visit the Channel Isles — including the Isle of Wight among the rest, as it is as much a Channel island as any of the others, although it lies much nearer to the mainland, and is an in tegrant part of the county of Hants. It were not only easy, but very delightful, to amplify those inducements, and expatiate upon them to any length, but such is not necessary, even though our limits would admit. The subjects them selves would bear any amplification ; for in so far as easy access, natural beauty, a high degree of fertility, and an atmosphere which is balm itself, are concerned, these Islands cannot be described up to the reality, or praised beyond their merits. There is this advantage in them too, and it is an advantage which applies to them all, that a very short time suffices for seeing the whole of any one of them, or even of the aggregate.

Now this an advantage, which no one can by possibility enjoy in a tour throughout a large country, though its size should not exceed that of England, or even of Scotland. Say, that one took a month's jaunt in England, in Scotland, or even in the Scotch highlands alone, and if he were fond of studying countries, he would find,

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. on his return, that he had done little more than examine a sample, which, instead of being complete gratification, would only plague him with anxiety to see the stock. In the case of a short continental tour it is still more so ; for if the time is only a month, the most that the tourist can do on his return, is simply to say that he has been abroad, Less than a month will, however, with ordinary activity, suffice to make one thoroughly acquainted with all that is most worthy of being seen in these Islands ; and then there is the double enjoyment of seeing land and sea every day, not only without any great effort, but almost whether the traveller will or no. There is much more in this than the generality of men are apt to suppose ; for a satisfied mind leaves one fully at liberty, and in spirits, to see and admire ; and the constant change and variety of nature, is probably the best means, not only of restoring the body to health, and the mind to tone; but also the most wholesome stimulus to greater desire, power, and activity, than were formerly pos sessed.

A full, and, in some respects, an experimental conviction of the truth of these positions, has induced us to write these remarks, with a view to induce every one who can, to give himself the pleasure of enjoying the sight of these little gems of the empire ; and if we should succeed in accomplishing this, we know that we should be the means of causing more real pleasure to be enjoyed, than if we had gained a battle, or founded a settlement in the Australian bush, or the Canadian wilderness. Speaking of bush and wilderness, we must be allowed to add that there are at home, and partly in the larger island under notice, spots of land with no smack of the wilderness about them, upon which all intending emigrants might, for the next half-century at least, find abundant occupation, most useful to themselves, and neither unprofitably nor dishonourably to their country.