built.

The line of Portsdown hills, on one of which is Nelson's monumental
pillar, usually bounds the view to the north; but in clear weather
our range of perspective embraces a portion of the South Downs
which is crossed by the London road near Petersfield: and on the
left, the beautiful retiring banks of Southampton Water to the town
to itself, backed by the woodland heights of the New Forest;--while
to the right it extends to the spire of Chichester Cathedral; but
with the aid of a glass even to Beachy-head, which appears in the
east like a faint cloud upon the horizon of the sea.

* * * * *

THE ENVIRONS OF RYDE

May be characterized as being beautifully rural, enlivened by peeps or
open prospects of the sea: for this is the best wooded quarter of the
island, adorned with several charming seats and villas, and intersected
by good roads.

But perhaps it ought to be here explained to the stranger, that by
_good_ roads, in the Isle of Wight, is only meant that they are
kept in tolerably good order: not that they are level, or even
gently undulating: for the very charm of the island consists in its
sudden alternation of hill and dale, producing a constant change of
scenery: one moment you may be enclosed in a sylvan theatre; and
the next minute stand on the brow of a hill, sufficiently lofty to
command an interminable panoramic prospect of land and sea.