hills is seen in its full extent:  and the southern hills themselves rise to a majestic height.  To the eastward the sea is again visible over the low lands of Sandown, and by its open expanse affords a fine contrast to the Solent Channel.

“The nearer objects on the southern slope are also very interesting:  Knighton House, with its venerable grey fronts mantled with luxuriant ivy, and bosomed in the richest groves, is as beautiful at a distance, as it is interesting on a nearer approach.  Arreton is also surrounded with trees, which group happily with the pretty church and an old mansion now converted into a farm:  and from the western end of the downs, the country about Newport and Carisbrooke is seen to great advantage. Such is the faint outline of a scene, which, in richness of tints, and variety of objects, surpasses anything I ever saw.”

     Note.—­Since this was written, Knighton House has been pulled
     down.

* * * * *

Objects between Brading and Newport.

Our course will be for the first three miles due west.  On the north side is NUNWELL, the oldest seat in the island, having been awarded by William the Conqueror to the ancestors of Sir William Oglander, the present proprietor.  Noble specimens of every kind of forest-tree are to be found in the park:  particularly oaks, several of which are many centuries old, the family having long employed every possible means of preserving these venerable chiefs of the grove.  The house (a large, plain building,) stands at the foot of the down, and therefore is not seen from the road:  but the surrounding park, woods, and farms of the estate, spread before the eye in a most beautiful style ...

    “With swelling slopes and groves of every green.”

ASHEY SEA-MARK is very conspicuously seen, being seated on a high down, three miles from Brading, four from Ryde, and five from Newport:  it is a perfectly plain, triangular object, erected in the middle of the last century to assist pilots in navigating St. Helen’s anchorage.

On the south side of the down appears the pretty village of NEWCHURCH, in the direct road from Ryde to Godshill, &c.  The situation of the Church is rather romantic, being nearly on the edge of a remarkably steep sand-cliff, through which the road is cut, feathered with brushwood and several overhanging trees.

* * * * *

If the tourist be returning to Newport, he will pass through the long village of ARRETON, whose church stands at the foot of the down of that name:  it is of considerable antiquity,—­and though its style of architecture is certainly heavy, is upon the whole both picturesque and singular.  Its chief internal decoration is a beautiful mausoleum to the memory of Sir Leonard W. Holmes, bart.:  and in the churchyard is buried the young woman celebrated for her piety in the popular tract of “the Dairyman’s Daughter.”