SHORWELL,
A considerable village, about four miles from Chale, and five from Newport; it stands charmingly sheltered in a curve of the downs with a southern aspect; has a pretty church; and boasts of the finest old mansion in the island, called NORTHCOURT, built in the reign of James I. This venerable pile has lately been thoroughly repaired: a necessary operation by the bye that has stripped it for a few years of its greatest ornament—the rich drapery of ivy which invested its lofty gray walls and pinnacles: hills, clothed with hanging woods and plantations, rise boldly around it; many of the oaks and pines, luxuriating in a fertile soil and genial climate, are uncommonly fine: the grounds too are embellished with a rustic temple, and a very elegant mausoleum to the memory of Miss Bull, the daughter of a former owner,—the whole scene indeed is replete with architectural and sylvan beauties. There are in the neighbourhood two other ancient manorial residences, named Westcourt and Woolverton, now converted into farm-houses: and the cottages of Shorwell are remarkable for their neatness and comfortable appearance, as well as for the abundant display of creepers and flowering shrubs with which most of them are adorned.
Two miles further on we enter BRIXTON, a populous village in the heart of a rich tract of cultivation: is one mile from the shore, and screened from the north by a range of lofty downs. The Church is rather spacious, and not unpicturesque; many of the cottages are neat, some few furnished for lodgings: and there is a comfortable small inn. This place is commonly called Brison, and one clergyman names it Brightstone.
MOTTISTONE succeeds: a pretty hamlet nearly shrouded in wood, with a very picturesque church. On an elevated part of the farm are the remains of some small druidical temple called Longstone, which is a rude piece of rock of a quadrangular figure, evidently erected by art, and rears itself about twelve feet above the ground; near it another large stone lies partly buried in the earth, of not less than eight feet long.
BROOK is the last village we pass till we reach Freshwater: much the same character as the others: the Mansion-house, which is surrounded with wood, being the only object to notice, besides the little church, which we shall presently pass, posted solitarily on an eminence near the foot of the down.