tailor's parish-apprentice to an admiral's rank in the reign of
Queen Anne: he headed Sir George Rooke's squadron in the attack on
Vigo harbour, where a numerous Spanish fleet was entirely captured
or burned.--The little village of Bonchurch claims the honor of his
birth-place.

We shall conclude this general chapter with a brief summary of the
local history, though the annals of a small dependent isle like this,
cannot be expected to possess any very exciting interest.

[In fact it can boast of no important ancient settlements or
records--no valued chronicles of the alternate successes and
defeats of ambitious rival princes and their contending armies, or
the unpitied sufferings of the sacrificed population: and perhaps
it would never have been mentioned in the national history, had it
not been for the imprisonment of fallen royalty in the case of
Charles I. Its situation certainly exposed it to the attacks of
Danish pirates, and subsequently of the French; but these distant
events constituting but a broken and unconnected narrative, the
ensuing brief sketch will we presume be sufficient for the majority
of our readers. We refer those who wish further information on the
subject to the valuable work of Sir Richard Worsley,--from which
this article is partly abridged.]

It was subdued by the Roman troops under Vespasian, A.D. 43; but
the conquerors could not have experienced much resistance from the
natives, as no remains of their military works have been here
discovered. Under the empire, the island was reckoned to contain
about 1200 families.