The Isle of Wight

by G. E. Mitton

SANDOWN BAY.
The white cliffs of Culver Down are the eastward end of the rib of chalk which has its other extremity at the Needles.

The narrow lanes crowded in by high, many-flowering hedges, the sharp descents and sudden turns, are not conducive to ease in motoring or cycling, and cyclists who ride as an end in itself, and not as a means to enjoyment, will find they had better go elsewhere. A capable cyclist could run all round the island in a day, but much would he miss thereby! For the attractions of the island are varied, appealing to historian, antiquarian, geologist, and botanist, man of letters, and lover of scenery, no less than the sportsman, and he who loves a game. From the historic castle of Carisbrooke, with its pathetic memories, to the yachting week at Cowes, almost every kind of man can find something to interest him.

The facilities for getting about are good, for though in the northern part of the island the roads are sometimes a little rough, with stones not deeply enough set, they are always dry, being sandy; and west of Newport, and south, and also in the south-eastern corner, over quite three-quarters of the island in fact, they are excellent, dry, smooth, and firm. In spite of the hills and sudden turns, therefore, there is much to be commended to cyclists.

The two railways, the Isle of Wight and the Isle of Wight Central, divide the ground between them, the former running from Ventnor to Ryde, with a branch to Bembridge, and the other, which is much the larger, covering the rest of the ground. By their peculiar position they are enabled to give certain kinds of tickets which could not be offered except on a small island. Of such are the "go-where-you-please" weekly tickets, limited only by time, and not by distance. These enable one, for the sum of about a pound, to travel first-class in any direction, and over the same lines, as often as one likes for a week; while each railway also offers cheaper tickets for its own lines exclusively, and the lower classes are correspondingly cheaper.

In this general survey we have not so far touched upon one aspect of the island which in the minds of some people looms so large as altogether to eclipse all others, and that is its attractions as a health resort.

The fortune of Ventnor was made by the celebrated physician, Dr. James Clark (1780-1870), who pronounced it to be the English Madeira. From a little fishing hamlet it grew prodigiously fast into a fashionable watering-place, with good shops and fine buildings. Numerous sanatoria for consumptives, ranging downwards from the Royal National Hospital, show the opinion of its climate held by medical men in our own day.

The town, which stands on the side of a steep incline, is extremely picturesque, and some of the streets seem absolutely to tumble downwards. The different levels, however much they may add to its beauty from an artist's point of view, are, however, a little trying to the large number of invalids who come to Ventnor. Bathing, golf, tennis, and all the usual recreations are found in abundance, and the number of coaches starting for different excursions on a summer's day are legion. Shanklin differs from Ventnor in having houses above and below the cliff, instead of being planted on its side—a feat here rendered impossible by the precipitous nature of the cliffs. The two parts are connected with a lift, which does not in itself add to the beauties of the landscape, and there are also, of course, zigzag paths and graded roads, and the famous chine already referred to, by which one can reach the higher level from the lower. Shanklin faces eastward, and is "round the corner" from Ventnor, which makes it not quite so warm in summer.

Sandown, again, which is northward, faces, like Shanklin, over a wide bay, and it boasts a high record in sunshine, having been, in fact, first for the whole of the United Kingdom in 1908. The sands are also exceptionally good.