[Illustration: SHANKLIN CHINE. The picturesque ravine carved by a small stream on the south side of the town.] _Beautiful Britain_ _The Isle of Wight_ _By_ _G·E·Mitton_ _A & C Black Ltd_ _45 & 6 Soho Square London W_ CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. THE ISLAND 5 II. CARISBROOKE AND ITS MEMORIES 13 III. CONCERNING LITERARY MEN AND MAKERS OF HISTORY 29 IV. YACHTS AND MEN-OF-WAR 41 V. THE SCENERY AND HOW IT CAME TO BE 49 VI. FOOTPRINTS OF THE INVADERS 54 INDEX 63 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1. SHANKLIN CHINE _Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE 2. SANDOWN BAY 9 3. YACHTING AT COWES 16 4. THE UNDERCLIFF 25 5. FRESHWATER BAY 32 6. BONCHURCH OLD CHURCH, NEAR VENTNOR 41 7. GODSHILL 48 8. THE NEEDLES 51 _Plan of Carisbrooke Castle_ 62 THE ISLE OF WIGHT CHAPTER I THE ISLAND Islands have always exercised a peculiar fascination over Englishmen, perhaps because, accustomed as they are to a sense of security induced by the surrounding sea, they never feel more comfortable than when the sea is on all sides at a measurable distance. It has been the ambition of many an Englishman to possess an island, however small, of his own. But England is not particularly blessed in this matter, and we may look with envy at the fringe of islands, large and small, precipitous and flat, scattered along the rugged shores of the west coast of Scotland. The only two English islands which can claim exceptional interest are the Isle of Man and the Isle of Wight. Of the other well-known ones, the Scilly Isles and Channel Isles are too inaccessible to count, Sheppey and Thanet and Holy Island too small, and Anglesea is separated by so very diminutive a channel from the mainland that it hardly seems like an island at all.