The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-26 00:00:00

711 E DEFENCES OF 2HE ISLE OF

TVIGH7 .

The od fort in Sandown Bay, Isle of Wight,whieh
was chiefly distinguished for its local traditions and
the miserably isolated aspect it bore in the eyes of
the majority of visitors to that fashionable rwatesia
place, is new all but razed to the gtouod, and iag,
place supplied by a new lot l,spi ieging up about 15g'
yards further eastward on the line of beach, of a
very different character, both in its offensive and de-
fensive powers. The old fort was a mere crumbling
ruin for years and years, having a few light guns,
which it would be unsafe to discharge, on rotten old
wooden carriages, and standing on a terrepletne that
would probably have fallen to a level with the beach
had it been possible to fire the few guns in the fort at
one and the same time. As this old work was all
but level with the ground from decay, old age, and
neglect, the authorities have excluded it altogether
from the general plan for the defence of the bay,
and are erecting another work to supply its place,
and which from its strengtil and position will be
the key of the line of defences which extend from
the Barrack battery, west of Sandown, to Redcliff
battery, situate on the verge of the overhanging
sand cliff at the junction of the coloured cliffs with
the chalk cliffs of Culver or Bembridge Down. The
new Sandown fort is a most formidable work. Its
right and left front faces have each a length of 166
feet, with right and left faces of 116 feet each, and
right and left flanks of 150 feet each. The gorge,
240 feet in length, is closed by quarters for officers,
&c., and the whole surrounded by a wide and deep
ditch, having stout revetments. The front and right
and left faces are faced with 9ft. thickness of Pen-
rhyn granite, banded with iron hooping. The plans
of the work provide for covering this granite front
with 10in. of iron plating,and with iron embrasures
on the Thornycroft system, having each a width of
21t. 6in., and giving the guns in the casemates a
training of 35 deg. The final decision as to the
iron 10-inch plating and embrasures will have to
be made, as well as upon the iron keeps and em •
brasures for the forts on Portsdown, when the forti-
cation scheme next comes before the House of Com-
mons. The casemates for the guns of the new fort,
12 on the front faces and three on its right and left
faces, will be capable of mounting guns of extra-
ordinary weight and calibre. The work will have
good command on either flank over the low ground
on which it stands, while the top of the work will
be well traversed for rifle fire. The roomy case-
mates in rear of the guns contain ample accommoda-
tion for 100 men. Underneath bombproof arches
in the centre of the parade ground has been con-
structed a tank, fitted with filtering apparatus, ca-
pable of holding 10,000 gallons of water for the use
of the garrison. The water will be collected. from
what falls within the area of the fort, from the roof
of the officers' quarters and the terre-pleine of the
work. The main magazine has brick walls 4 feet in
thickness, laid in cement, the outer layer of
bricks having glazed surfaces, to prevent
damp by contact with the earth covering. It has
hollow ventilating openings round the wall, Sze.,
and will contain 2,000 eases of powder. The
cost of the work, without the iron plating
or embrasures, is about £30,000. The con-
struction has been attended with an unusual amount
of labour, all the heaviest of the materials, includ-
ing the blocks of granite, which weigh from 1 to
6 tons each, having to be landed in Braiding har-
bour, and thence conveyed overland, via Bembridge
Down, to where the fort is being built. Right and
left of the new fort of Sundown the line of cliffs
on the sea-beach rise to a considerable height above
high-water mark, culminating in the bold head-
land of Dunnose, at the western extremity of the
bay, and in the Culver Cliffs, at the eastern end.
On the highest part of the sandstone cliff westward
of Sandown is the 'western point of the defensive
position—the Barrack battery. The work is of a
triangular form, having three guns on its left face
and two en cavalier on its right face, the base of the
triangle being closed by a loopholed wall with a
building for quarters connected with the entrance
gateway, and a dry ditch surrounding the whole.
Situated on the top of a high cliff, this fort is in-
accessible from the beach, which it sweeps with its
guns, and covers by those on its left face the left
flank and front of the chief work in the hollow of
the bay; while the guns on the cavalier bastions
command the beach to the right, and the waters of
the bay in front of Shanklin and Luecombo. The
next supporting work to the new work is Yavez-
lane, occupying a commanding position on the
cliffs eastward. It is an earthwork, having a front
at an obtuse angle,mounting six guns firing through
embrasures, and two guns on cavalier bastions. In
support to the chief work, the stone-fronted fort in
the hollow below, is of a similar nature to that
afforded by the Barrack battery to the west-
ward, commanding the sea to the front, and
sweeping the line of. beach on the front and
left flank of the fert.-_ Its gorge is close I by
a building for officers' and men's quarters on the
left, and a high loopholed wall on the right
connected by the entracte gateway, which crosses a
deep and wide ditch, the cuttings of which, as at.
the Barrack battery and Redcliff, end on the cliff
overhanging the sea beach. The last of the
works erected along the line of cliffs eastward is
Redcliff, which stands on a somewhat higher eleva-
tion than Yaverland, and at the junction of the red
and brown sandstone with the chalk of the Culvers
and Bembridge Down. It is a strong earthern work
of irregular form, mounting three guns, firing
through embrasures, and one gun on a cavalier baa-
tion. Its gorge is closed by a loopholed wall, with
entrance gateway, &c., and, like Yaverland, and the
Barrack batteries, is perfectly inaccessible from the
beach, although untenable, as the whole line of
works would be, if the higher lands east and west
of the line were in possession ofan enemy. The situa-
tion of the Redcliff battery is much objected to,
owing to its being placed on the verge of an over-
hanging cliff of a peculiarly friable sandy nature. It
is said that if the weight of the work itself does not
cause the overhanging part of the cliff to detach
itself, and tumble the whole on to the beach some
hundred feet below, such a catastrophe is certain to
occur the first time its guns are fired, as the cliff
could never support the great weight of the work
under the concussion which would be caused by the
firing.

The weakness of the Sandown line of defences, it
will be seen, are the high lands which dominate
them at either extremity, but particularly at Bena-
bridge Down, the holder of which, friend or enemy,
command the whole of the works described, the ap-
proaches to Sandown Bay from the sea, from Brad-
ing harbour, and part of the eastern entrance to
Spithead. To render the whole design as complete
as possible, the construction of a citadel has been
commenced on the topmost crest of the down, the
central part of the excavations being where the
monument stood that was erected to the memory of
Lord Yarborough, many years Commodore of the
Royal Yacht squadron. Nothing has yet been done
to this work beyond the excavations, the chalk from
which, deposited on the side of the lofty down, is
visible for miles on either side, by land and by sea.
It is intended to make this work perfectly impreg-
nable to any system of attack which could be brought
to bear upon it, giving it the same prominence in
the general plan of defence of the island at its east-
ern extremity as is held by the work on Golden-
hill at its western end.

THE CRIMINALS UNDER SENTENCE OF DEATH.--
The winter assize has been very heavy especially in murder
cases, and there are no less than five executions pending,
the wretched man Cox having already paid the fearful
penalty 3f his crime. The foreigner, Ferdinand Petreana,
who was convicted at Winchester of the murder of the mate
of the Winthrop, a British ship, on the Bth of October last,
on the high seas, will be executed on Tuesday, the 30th
inst., unless the learned judge who heard the case should
reserve a legal point rased at the trial for the court for the
consideration of Crown cases reserved. Wm. Ockold, an
old man of 70 years, who was convicted at 'Worcester of
the murder of his wife, aged 74, at Oldbury, on the Sth of
November, will be hanged at Worcester on the 2d Janu-
ary. Thomas Edwards, who was convicted at Liverpool of
the murder of Isabella Tongue, au abandoned woman, with
whom the murderer cohabited, will be executed at Kirk-
dale on the 3d of January, unless the recommendation to
mercy which accompanied the verdict of the jur3 should
induce the Home Secretary to respite the sentence. The
day for the execution of Robert Morgan, who is under sen-
tence of death for the police murder at Bristol on Sept.
25th, has not been fixed, but it is more than probable that
Saturday, the 3d of January, will be the appointed time.