[Illustration: SOUTHAMPTON BAR IN THE OLDEN TIME.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ GLIMPSES OF NATURE, AND OBJECTS OF INTEREST DESCRIBED, DURING A VISIT TO THE ISLE OF WIGHT. DESIGNED TO ASSIST AND ENCOURAGE YOUNG PERSONS IN FORMING HABITS OF OBSERVATION. BY MRS. LOUDON, AUTHOR OF “THE LADIES’ COMPANION TO THE FLOWER GARDEN,” “FACTS FROM THE WORLD OF NATURE,” ETC. Second Edition WITH ADDITIONS AND FORTY-TWO ILLUSTRATIONS. LONDON: GRANT AND GRIFFITH, SUCCESSORS TO JOHN HARRIS, CORNER OF ST. PAUL’S CHURCH-YARD. ------- M.DCCC.XLVIII. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PREFACE. On the 21st of August, 1843, Mr. Loudon, my little daughter Agnes, and myself, set out, from Bayswater, to make the tour through the Isle of Wight which is recorded in the following pages. That tour has since acquired a melancholy importance in my eyes, from being the last I ever took with my poor husband, whose danger I was quite unconscious of when I wrote the book, though his death took place in less than a month from the day of its publication. This circumstance made the book painful to me, and I never looked at it again till now I have been reading it over for revision; and it is impossible to describe the vivid interest with which I recall every incident that took place, and every word that was uttered.