s for pleasure or for health: and
perhaps there is scarcely another spot in the kingdom, of the same
narrow limits, which can concentrate more of those qualities that at
once charm the eye and animate the soul. Nor should it be overlooked how
large a source of interest is derived from the proximity of those two
celebrated towns, Southampton and Portsmouth: and the beautiful
termination given to most of the open prospects by the retiring
distances on the opposite coast.

----"Intermixture sweet,
Of lawns and groves, of open and retired,
Vales, farms, towns, villas, castles, distant spires.
And hills on hills with ambient clouds enrolled,
In long succession court the lab'ring sight."

But the crowning beauty of the Island is certainly THE SEA! viewed in
all the splendor of its various aspects;--whether under the awful
grandeur of the agitated and boundless _Ocean_,--as a rapid and
magnificent _River_,--or reposing in all the glassy tranquillity of a
spacious land-locked _Bay_:--now of a glowing crimson, and now of the
purest depth of azure: its bosom ever spangled with a thousand moving
and attractive objects of marine life.

To those who have never had the opportunity of viewing the sea except
under the comparatively dreary aspect which it presents from many
unsheltering parts of the southern coast, as for instance Brighton,
where almost the only relief to the monotony of the wide expanse is a
few clumsy fishing boats or dusky colliers, and occasionally the rolling
clouds of smoke from a passing steamer,--it may seem that we are rather
disposed to exaggerate the picture; but not so, as would certainly be
attested by every one who had visited the island: for here the scene is
ever enriched by magnificent SHIPS OF WAR, innumerable merchant-vessels,
and splendid pleasure-yachts, safely lying at anchor or gaily sailing
about in every direction; and what moving object in the world can
surpass, in grandeur, beauty, and interest, a fine ship under full
canvass with a light breeze? Let the reader only imagine how glorious a
sight it must have been, when 200 sail,--line-of-battle-ships, frigates,
and large merchantmen under convoy, would weigh anchor at the same time,
and proceeding on their voyage, _pass round the island_ as it were in
review!--thus affording a spectacle, as they floated

"O'er the glad waters of the dark blue sea,"

never to be erased from the memory of those who had o