Southsea, the moral West End of Portsmouth, which is at its east end, holds out most attractions to tarrying strangers. It seems a favourite place of residence or sojourn for retired or idle officers of both services, who enjoy the stir of parades and regimental bands, and the view of the Solent always alive with yachts, steamers, and men-of-war; but it is not so well adapted for a quiet family bathing-place, unless to the taste of nursery maids, who here would be well off for red-coated and blue-jacketed “followers.” A special feature is the wide Common cutting off the houses from the sea-front, with its gay piers and long esplanade leading round the modernised walls of Southsea Castle. Hence let us take our last gaze upon the wooded shores of the Isle of Wight, where, four or five miles off across the Solent, Ryde steeple stands up as the starting-point of our arm-chair tour, now to be ended, I trust, with the reader’s gratuity of good-will towards his _cicerone_. INDEX Adams, Rev. W., 84 Afton Down, 103 Albert, Prince, 107, 151 Alexandrian Pillar, 92 _All Moonshine_, 137 Alum Bay, 115 Alverston, 62 _Amours Anglais_, 128 Approaches to Island, 17, 154 Appuldurcombe, 52 Arnold of Rugby, 148 Arreton, 57 Ashey Down, 57 Atherfield Point, 99 Back of the Island, 77, 92 Badd, E., Epitaph on, 31 Barton Manor-house, 150 Battenberg, Prince of, 11, 151 Battenberg, Princess Beatrice, 11, 46, 152 Beaulieu, 168 Bembridge, 60 Bembridge Down, 61 Benedictine Monks, 27, 53 Benson, story of, 64 Bevis of Hampton, romance, 41, 158 Binstead, 25 Black, William, _quoted_, 90 Blackgang Chine, 97 “Blue Slipper,” the, 77 Bonchurch, 83 Bordwood Forest, 62 Bouldnor Cliffs, 123 Brading, 54 Brighstone or Brixton, 101 Brook Point, 102 Buddle Inn, 89 Calbourne, 124 Cameron, Mrs, 106 Captains of the Island, 8 Carisbrooke, 36 ---- Castle, 39 Caves at Freshwater, 112 Chale, 98 Chale Bay, 96 Charles I., imprisonment of, 41 Chines, formation of, 74 Clarke, Sir James, 78 Climate, 14 Colepeper, Lord, 9 Colwell Bay, 118 Compton Bay, 102 Consumption Hospital, 88 Cook’s Castle, 74 Cowes, 139 Cripple Path, the, 89 Culver Cliffs, 61 _Dairyman’s Daughter, The_, 58 Davenant’s _Gondibert_, 145 De Montague, “Count.” _See_ Benson Dewar, Mr G. A. B., _quoted_, 29 Downs, the, 2, 48, 53, 62, 82, 92, etc. Dunnose, 75 East Cowes, 148 Egypt Point, 146 Elizabeth, Princess, 35, 44 Empress Eugenie, escape of, 23 Englefield, Sir Henry, _quoted_, 22, 98, 115 _Eurydice_, loss of the, 75 Fairfax family in America, 10 Farringford, 106 Fielding at Ryde, 20 Fishbourne, 27 Fitz-Osborne, William, 7 _Flora Vectensis_, 16 Foghorns, 94 Foreland, the, 60 Fossil Forest, 102 Freshwater, 104 Freshwater Bay, 104, 112 Garde Family, 50 Gatcombe, 53 Geology of the Island, 2, 100 Gloucester, Duke of, 44 Godshill, 49 Gosport, 169 Governors of the Island, 10 Grange Chine, 101 Gurnard Bay, 48, 147 Hammond, Colonel, 41