The Sun.
London, England, 1849-09-14 00:00:00

ISLE OF WIGHT.
FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)
From Brighton we started on the 11th inst., at
eight in the morning, although certain parties, not
vveatherwise, attempted to dissuade us from the jour-
ney. We took our seats in a coupee " back," mean-
ing back to the engine, with a respectable lading of
passengers, adding to their number at Worthing,
Littlehampton, Arundel, and Chichester. The class
of persons so conveyed were evidently not singularly
remarkable " for delicateness and tenderness." Each
seemed, with coat, cape, mackintosh, cloak, shawls,
boas, &c., determined to face rude Boreas in a style
worthy of a bruiser dealing with an ugly customer.
The views from Brighton to Portsmouth presented
pictures of the most exquisite description, framed by
the window sashes through which we, enraptured
with their beauty, regarded these scenes. The great
masters of art appeared to us to be children when
compared with the masterpieces of nature, worked by
the finger of God.
Few remains of the harvest being left, the plough
had already succeeded to the reaping-hook. The ap-
proaching Michaelmas and Christmas were indicated
b. y tie flocks of bipeds and quadrupeds destined to
immolation at those festivities. The farmyards and
their cartilages abounded 'with stacks of grain, the
produce of a bounteous harvest. Seats of the no-
bility an I gentry profusely adorned the southern de-
clivity of the Downs, the sacred edifices standing
out as gems scattered over the variegated mantle of
nature. Chichester Cathedral especially attracts at-
tention, its form being ichnographically that of a
cross, and symbolic of the Redeemer's sufferings.
The entrance by the nave is termed Gallilee, the
name Gallilean being applied to the followers of
Christ in the time of Pilate, and our Saviour being
reproached with the proverb, as applicable to his
origin, " Can any good thing come out of Gallilee ?"
The nave represents the lower portion of the cross
fixed in Gallilee ; the transepts correspond with the
transverse arms of the cross, through which, as by the
hands of Christ, the believer is brought into the
church, and whereby access to the interior is usually
obtained. The choir is symbolic of the head of
Christ. It is the portion of the building wherein all
the divine services are almost invariably performed,
when sufficiency of space exists. To pursue this
language further, we may assume the towers at the
extremity of the nave to indicate the feet, the eleva-
tions at the ends of the transepts to indicate the
bands, whilst the central tower or spire may indicate
the spear transfixed in the Saviour's side. Turning
to the south, different views present themselves. The
sea, with vessels whitening her bosom, forms a broad
margin of beauty, incomparable save only by the
ethereal blue of the sky " overarching all," with no
cloud to threaten disappointment to the traveller.
The enormous inlet of the sea which surrounds
Hayling island was checkered with numerous small
craft, and vessels of larger dimensions were visib'e
spreading their white sails to the breeze, agitated
like the feathers of the swan, and destined to receive
the offerings of Ceres into the lap of Amphitrite, to
be conveyed over the bosom of Neptune's extensive
domain. _

Approaching within a short distance of the Ports•
mouth station a military outwork is passed. Here
we noted the sergeant-engineer expounding to his
Pupils the mathematical mysteries of his craft.
Reaching the new station, which, like almost all other
railway stations, is already too small for the business
done there, we passed quickly within the lines of
fortification. It may assist the reader to impart a
rude notion, better than none at all, of what a fortifi-
cation is ; for there are few persons now, we should
hope, who, not having seen a fortification, would
answer with the schoolmaster to such inquiry, that a
fortification was two twentyfications. Conceive a base
line extending along the margin of the sea, which in
this case is presumed to be a right, straight, or direct
tine, upon this line carry horizontally four more lines,
of equal length, so as to form a five-sided figure
(pentagon); at the three salient angles nearest to the
railway additional works are so added as to enable the
military occupying these works to command in flank
the long line from one angle, corner, or outwork, to
another, in such way, that if troops approached
the walls the military, from these outlying
corners might direct the fire of the garrison, its
musketry and large cannon lengthwise upon the
attacking columns. The effect is intended to be the
Milne as planting cannon at the two ends of a street,
so that the soldiers or riotous citizens in the street
might, in nautical phraseology, be " raked fore and
aft. The corner works are called bastions, being
angular or circular projections from the line consti-
tuting the pentagon. There are other works, as
horns, couaterscarps, and what not; and if the traveller
be at all fond of military fortifications as a branch of
mathematics, he may have a rich treat in this locality.
But time and tide wait for no man ; and the
steamer gaily decorated, and what is more important,
well laid in with stores, is filling fast with passengers
and their private " belly-timber." The circuit of the
island is upwards of 60 miles, and the voyage is to
last fur eight hours. Ityde, with its half•mile long pier
and clustered houses on rising ground, is the most
conspicuous object, after viewing the marine for-
tifications which command the entrance to the
harbour of Portsmouth, and the first-rate (largest)
ships of war, and the naval steamers lying at anchor off
the head of the sand, called the " Spit," and, there-
fore, Spithead. The curious traveller who desires to
see Spithead must go as a diver, admission being re-
fused to all other modes of approach. Contrary to the
usual course, we are to go south about to visit the
back of the island first, and to return in the afternoon
northward, by way of the Solent. St. Helen's, Brad-
lag Harbour, and the Foreland, being passed, the
whiteness of the bluff chalk cliffs gives place to the
Sandy strata of Sandown Bay. Here the breaks in
the rocks, which elsewhere might be called ravines,
take the name of chines, very different, from
chines of beef or pork, from which, however, the
name is said to be derived. Those of Shanklin and
Luccomb being covered with verdure, and the streams
from the elevated cliffs above coming down in tor-
tuous courses, making very deep fissures, and leaping
as successive cataracts from one point of elevation to
another in their descent, at length throw out jets and
streams of pellucid water on the ruddy sand,
which, viewed from the sea, look like
diamonds sparkling in rainbow colours, and
are comparable only to these gems set off in
brilliancy and beauty by the fair bosom which beats
with sympathy or love. Next, the Undercliff heaves
In sight. It is evident that at some very remote era
there has been a land-fall nearly the whole length of
this southern face of the island. The land undis-
turbed forms an enormous perpendicular wall, having
the appearance of rude masonry, apparently designed
to keep off the northern blasts and their conquerors
of the east and west. This land is destitute of trees
for miles, and is similar in character to the Brighton
downs ; not so the fallen land, which, independently
of the extraordinary diversity of surface and aspect
Which it presents, is remarkable for the rich fertility
of its vegetable kingdom. The dense foliage of the
trees, already giving some signs of autumnal tint, and
the beauteous glades, over which the shadows of the
trees and of an occasional fleeting cloud passes, make
the scene almost instinct with life. The cattle and
horses are feeding on the lower lands. The flocks of
sheep grazing on the lofty downs, reaching far into
the region of the clouds, contrast with and
add brilliancy to the deep blue of the sky.
From amidst some of these masses of foliage an Eliza-
bethan or a Gothic structure emerges ; one cf the
latter largely covered with ivy (Steephill Castle) has
a supereminently beautiful effect in the combination
and contrast of art with nature. Far different is the
impression conveyed to us by the modern-looking,
mean houses of Ventnor. These hideous structures,
without verdure, stuck in rude confusion, apparently
one above the other, some with projecting roofs, others
with verandas, seemed each to " grin horribly a
ghastly smile" at our little steamer, and her merry
and delighted, because fully occupied crew.
We had passed but a short while the lighthouse,
elevated on the most southern point of the island,
when, changing our course, we encountered the
direct opposition of wind, tide, and current. Here,
on a small scale, was a sort of Bay of Biscay, to us
new voyagers as remarkable as the larger bay is to
those who are compelled to navigate it. Our little
steamer contended nobly with her enemies, having
one leg (or wheel) almost suspended out of the water,
the other being immersed, far above its axle, in the
sea ; the action of the rudder to adjust this one-sided
ai motion, and the ground swell of the waves together,
produced that complicated series of motions, the
resultant of which is faintly adumbrated by
the apothecary in shaking a medicine bottle.
The delicate vibration of the stomach necessary for
the due simmering of the contents of that animal
stew-pan was sensibly affected thereby. An ashy
Paleness began to overspread the features of many of
the passengers, chiefly of the ladies in the first
instance, and presented favourable occasions for
offering the delicate attentions to the sex which
result in a bucket and mop. The votaries of Ceres,
Bacchus, and Vesta, that is, the eaters, drinkers, and
aniekers, men as well as women, were soon compelled
by the dread stroke of Neptune's trident to bend
before him and contribute to his loud demand for
largess
Few of the passengers could avoid making con-
tributions. Horace, in his ode to Virgil, says truly,
and perhaps feelingly—
" Illi robnr et aes triplex,
Circa pectus erat, qui fragilem truci
Commisit pplago ratem
Primus."
That is, " the man who for the first time embarks in
a small steam-boat off the Isle of Wight, ought to have
his stomach lined with treble plates of brass.
Slowly, indeed, did we proceed, and well are we
Initiated into the rudeness of Neptune's embraces.
As a railway shareholder in the North-Western,
Brighton, and Eastern Counties, we fell a musing on
the leading persons to whom we and others
had entrusted 0* management of those concerus.