docks, wharves, manufactories, and warehouses, it has no pretensions whatever to any rank or distinction among the trading towns of the kingdom. The greater part of its business is confined to local inhabitants and summer visitors. During the war, when our fleets lay in the adjacent waters, and our armies were often encamped in the surrounding fields, Ryde looked up with the probability of becoming a place of some importance in the commercial world; but since peace has blessed the nations of the earth with its benign influence, this town has no other resources from which to draw its support than those contained within itself. The residents, for the most part, obtain their livelihood by shopkeeping or handicraft, in connection with a lodging house. In the winter, the watermen sometimes obtain a respectable return for their cold, perilous, and dreary labours, in the herring fishery. This trade supports many families, helps the traffic of the town, and is of considerable benefit to the poor. This fishery is, however, very fluctuating, and in consequence the benefit is exceedingly variable. The trade of the town varies with the season: when the summer has passed, and the tide of fashion, of pleasure, and of relaxation, has rolled back, those who were borne along by it in its mighty flow, have again receded, and the business of the place, like the season of the year, has a dull and dreary aspect.

There is a considerable intercourse kept up between Portsmouth and Ryde: multitudes of persons pass and repass daily; and since the opening of the SouthWestern Railway to Gosport, thousands weekly exchange the thick atmosphere of the metropolis for the refreshing breezes of the Isle of Wight; and are thus gradually affording a benefit to the actual trade of the place. The articles which are sent from Ryde to Portsmouth are of the lowest order: butter, eggs, and

poultry, are the vendable commodities which are carried over weekly by a few of the adjacent villagers. The introduction of Steam Vessels, which took place in the beginning of April, 1825, and the vessels of the same description which touch at this place, and have direct connection with Cowes, Yarmouth, Lymington, and Southampton, may possibly make a more powerful impression on the trade of the town than has been hitherto felt. During the season, there is generally a good supply of fine provisions, with a pleasant variety of poultry, fish, vegetables, and fruit. The coast has a diversity of fish, and abounds with prawns; these are generally large and fine-flavoured, and may be enjoyed in profusion by those who delight to enrich their tables with the abundance of the sea.

This account of Ryde cannot be closed in language more appropriate, or with a description more correct, than is given by Dr. Shaw, in his Treatise on the "Influence of Climates."*

* "Of all the situations in the Island, Ryde appears to me to deserve the preference as a summer residence. It stands on the slope of a dry, gravelly hill, facing the north, immediately opposite Portsmouth; and from the fine open manner in which part of it is built-many of the houses having gardens attached to them, it possesses most of the advantages of a country residence, together with those of a sea bathing place. The neighbourhood also is very beautiful, and favourable for exercise.

"As a summer residence, the Isle of Wight presents a considerable variety of healthful and beautiful sites, suited to the wants of a large proportion of valetudinarians; and the invalid who has wintered at Undercliff, and means to return there the succeeding season, may pass the summer conveniently and agreeably at Ryde, Cowes, Sandown, or Shanklin. The selection should be regulated according to the circumstances of the case, or the choice of the individual. The more delicate invalids would require to return to Undercliff in September."

SECTION 3.

Walks in the Vicinity of Ryde.

*

APPLEY.

APPLEY is a most beautiful spot to the east of Ryde. This fine family mansion was originally built by one Boyce, who, from being a blacksmith at Gosport, by great success in smuggling, became possessed of forty thousand pounds. His residence here was, however, but of short continuance: by extents from the Court of Exchequer, he was summoned to leave this beautiful scene for the gloomy walls of the Fleet prison.

The present mansion stands on a gently rising hill. A fine velvet lawn spreads itself before the house, skirted with an elegant shrubbery. The rose, the laurel, the aloe, the sumach, and the laurestinus, all mingle their beauties in this sequestered place. On the sides of the hill is a fine hanging wood, through which a winding path marks out the road, where the eye may be regaled at once with land and ocean, with the wildness of nature and elegance of art. The entrance to the wood, in each direction, is adorned by a neat rustic lodge, which adds very much to the picturesque beauty of the spot. The road leading to this fairy land is situated by the sea side. Before reaching Appley, a large plain is passed, covered with grassy hillocks. This plain, which is called the Dover,† is the silent resting place

* Portsmouth Register, p. 110.

The appellation Dover, is given to a piece of land from which the tide has retired, and which now consists of sand, grass, and wild herbage.

of the departed mariner. Here, without any pillar to inform the traveller, or any monument to record the catastrophe, or embalm the memory of the departed, are interred the bodies of many of the seamen who were drowned at the time the Royal George sank at Spithead, in August, 1782.*

* During the washing of the decks of this vessel, which was about to sail on an expedition to the Mediterranean, the carpenter discovered that the pipe which admitted the water to cleanse and sweeten the ship, and which was about three feet under the water, was out of repair; that it was necessary to replace it with a new one, and to heel her on one side for that purpose. Το effect this, between seven and eight o'clock in the morning of the 29th, the guns on the larboard (or left) side of the ship, in the lower and upper decks, were run out of the port-holes up to the breasts of the guns as far as they would go, and the guns on the starboard (or right) side, drawn in midships, and secured by tackles or ropes. This brought her port-hole sills on the lower side nearly even with the water.

About nine o'clock, the crew having just finished breakfast, the last lighter, called the Lark, of 50 tons, laden with rum, came on the low side of the ship to unload, when a number of the crew were ordered to clear lighter;' and the rum being put on board on that side, before it was stowed away below, this, together with the weight of the men so employed, caused her to heel beyond what was apprehended; and every ripple or wave of the sea kept dashing in at her midship ports, which, having no possibility of escape, she soon had so great a weight of water in her hold, that she gradually and imperceptibly stole still farther down on that side.

The carpenter perceiving the ship to be in danger, went twice on the deck to request the lieutenant of the watch to order the ship to be righted: the first time, he answered him very short, and the second, with an oath, that if he knew better how to manage the ship than he did, he had better take the command.

The shipwrights, caulkers, and plumbers continued at work, and had almost finished the water-pipe, for which the ship was heeled, when a sudden breeze blew on her raised side, and forced her still farther down, and the water began to flow into her lower ports. As soon as the perilous situation of the ship was discovered, instead of every man being ordered to the upper side, (and 1200 persons would in a minute, by their weight, have saved

On arriving at the end of the wood in front of Appley a road winds up to the right. If the visitor pass along this way, it will lead him near St. John's,*

her,) the drum beat to right ship, and the men instantly ran to their guns for that purpose; but in vain-it was too late. In a minute or two she sunk still more on her side, the water rushing in at all the ports, and every thing moveable falling from the upper side, accelerated her descent, and she fell on her broadside, with her masts nearly flat on the water, and sunk so rapidly, that the officers, in their confusion, made no signal of distress; nor could any assistance have availed if they had, after her lower deck ports were in the water. The victualling sloop, which was lashed alongside, became entangled in the main yard of the unfortunate ship, and was drawn into the vortex and sunk with her. At this fatal moment there were about 1200 persons on board, nearly 900 of whom perished; among whom was Admiral Kempenfelt, whose flag was then flying on board, and whose loss was universally lamented. Captain Waghorne, the admiral's first captain, tried to acquaint him that the ship was sinking; but the heeling over of the ship had so jammed the doors of the cabin that they could not be opened.

It is to be regretted, that no public-spirited individual has excited the attention of the opulent to put a solitary pillar on the sailor's grave. The hillocks are fast wearing away; and the ravages of the sea every year, and the feet of the traveller constantly passing over them, will in a very little while leave hardly the vestige of the "narrow cell" remaining.

*At the foot of St. John's wood are two meadows; one on each hand, the main road running between them. These meadows are known by the name of Monk's Meads. It is a remarkable circumstance that the first crop of hay they produce annually, is reaped, not by the owner, nor by the person who may rent the land, but by the tenant of Newnham farm; a farm situated upwards of two miles distant, in another parish, and belonging to another estate, and which has no connection whatever with the land. There is a legend attached to this circumstance. The tale is, that one of the monks of Quarr was in the habit of visiting the family that once occupied Newnham farm, in rather an amorous character; and as his visits were very frequent, and he was accustomed to put up his horse at the farmer's expense, he bequeathed to the tenant of Newnham the first crop of hay