The fortune of Ventnor was made by the celebrated physician, Dr. James Clark (1780-1870), who pronounced it to be the English Madeira. From a little fishing hamlet it grew prodigiously fast into a fashionable watering-place, with good shops and fine buildings. Numerous sanatoria for consumptives, ranging downwards from the Royal National Hospital, show the opinion of its climate held by medical men in our own day. The town, which stands on the side of a steep incline, is extremely picturesque, and some of the streets seem absolutely to tumble downwards. The different levels, however much they may add to its beauty from an artist's point of view, are, however, a little trying to the large number of invalids who come to Ventnor. Bathing, golf, tennis, and all the usual recreations are found in abundance, and the number of coaches starting for different excursions on a summer's day are legion. Shanklin differs from Ventnor in having houses above and below the cliff, instead of being planted on its side--a feat here rendered impossible by the precipitous nature of the cliffs. The two parts are connected with a lift, which does not in itself add to the beauties of the landscape, and there are also, of course, zigzag paths and graded roads, and the famous chine already referred to, by which one can reach the higher level from the lower. Shanklin faces eastward, and is "round the corner" from Ventnor, which makes it not quite so warm in summer. Sandown, again, which is northward, faces, like Shanklin, over a wide bay, and it boasts a high record in sunshine, having been, in fact, first for the whole of the United Kingdom in 1908. The sands are also exceptionally good. These three are the best known health resorts, but visitors throng equally to the rapidly rising Totland Bay on the west, and Freshwater, Cowes, Ryde, and other places are seldom altogether deserted to their own inhabitants. CHAPTER II CARISBROOKE AND ITS MEMORIES Carisbrooke is the central attraction for visitors, just as, by position, it is well-nigh the centre of the island. Even from childish days the picture of the patient donkey walking in a wheel to draw up water from the well, or the touching tale of the little Princess Elizabeth, who pined to death in the castle, has been familiar to everyone. The donkey who now holds the office is probably just as great an interest to the thousands of tourists--one Whit-Monday has been known to bring ten thousand--as the historical associations with which the castle is so richly endowed. The well is 150 feet deep, but that the work is not unduly hard is evidenced by the longevity of the donkeys, one of which lived to the age of thirty-two and another to twenty-one years. There are two at present, who relieve each other, both comparatively young and much petted.