VARIOUS _attractions_; we mean especially to those parties who can only
snatch occasionally a very brief period for a summer excursion; not only
as regards its _peculiar and acknowledged local advantages_, but equally
so from those adventitious and auxiliary circumstances that are derived
from the present _rail-road_ conveyance from the metropolis: and from
the _shortness_ and _perfect safety_ of the passage across--being little
more than an hour from Southampton, and only half that time from
Portsmouth; the former an important mercantile port and fashionable
watering-place; and the latter, the first naval station in the
kingdom--its marine treasures too thrown open gratuitously to public
inspection: and what curiosity can afford a Briton more gratification,
than to visit such a dock-yard, and pace the deck of the very ship in
which _Victory_ crowned the last moments of the immortal Nelson?

Though the island has to boast of many passages of highly romantic and
_brilliant_ scenery, yet the predominant character of its landscapes is,
as was hinted above, calculated to amuse, to delight, and promote
_cheerfulness_, rather than to astonish or impress the spectator with
feelings of awe by their stupendous grandeur; circumstances which,
combined with its salubrity of climate, render it a most desirable
retreat to the valetudinarian and nervous invalid: indeed all the
alterations which have latterly been made, or are now in progress, tend
to soften, embellish, and in point of convenience to improve the face of
the country. On this subject however it will be a question with many
persons of good taste, whether any of these artificial operations are
really improvements upon the native character of the island. An artist
would most probably decide in the negative: but we know there are many
nevertheless, who consider that whatever deterioration the island may
experience in some of her more wild and romantic features, is amply
compensated by the spread of cultivation and rural decoration, by the