"Crags, knolls, and mounds, confus'dly hurl'd,
The fragments of an earlier world,"
We soon reach the locality of the SANDROCK CHALYBEATE SPRING: easily recognized by the low thatched roof of the Dispensary Cottage, that stands nearly on the brow of the cliff, as the water issues from a rock considerably below, inclosed in a plain piece of masonry. It has been proved by repeated analyses, that there is a larger proportion of iron and alumine in this than in any other mineral water yet discovered: and its medicinal properties are therefore decidedly indicated in the cure of those disorders arising from a relaxed fibre and languid circulation, such as indigestion, flatulency, nervous disorders, and debility from a long residence in hot climates.
Great improvement has taken place in the neighbourhood of the Spring, within these few years, by extensive draining: thus preventing the land-soaks and springs during winter from settling into frequent pools, and thereby reducing the soil to the repulsive condition of a sterile waste of quagmire and sliding rocks, and in every succeeding summer drying up into a thousand dangerous holes and fissures. The ground in fact is now sufficiently firm to invite the builder to the erection of some good houses; and the surface exhibits a healthy herbage: roads have also been made to the shore. A large and handsome-looking house, called an "Italian Villa," has been erected on the east side of the Spring,—but if the architect ever copied such for his model, he certainly should have selected a site more appropriate, that would have justified his choice of style by its genial aspect, its greenwood shades, and the vegetative luxuriance of the soil.
The shore here is called Rocken-end Race, being composed of vast confused heaps of rocky fragments precipitated in the course of ages from the cliffs above, and now stretching out into the sea for nearly a mile and a half.—Between this and Freshwater lie other formidable reefs, respectively named from the nearest villages, Atherfield, Chilton, and Brooke; they are extremely dangerous: and previously to the erection of the new Light-house, occasioned frequent shipwrecks.
BLACKGANG CHINE,
BLACKGANG CHINE, I.W. Taken from below the new Bridge, which is a very general point of view, as the descent to the shore thence becomes more abrupt and difficult.