ive traveller the best opportunity of examining the
cause of the peculiar character of this part of the island.

* * * * *

BONCHURCH.

>>_Formerly this was one of the most romantic scenes in the island,
but has lately been converted into a fashionable village. Amidst a
profusion of new houses, more or less tasty in their style--a
villa, called_ EAST DENE, _and the neighbouring old_ CHURCH_, are
all that will here particularly call the stranger from the
carriage-road._

* * * * *

In the year 1834, this beautiful spot was advertised to be sold off in
small lots for building 18 or 20 villas!--a circumstance much regretted
by the admirers of the peculiar scenery of the Undercliff, which was
exhibited here in its utmost perfection. Nearly the whole of the land is
now disposed of; some of the houses were built for the purpose of
letting lodgings; one has been opened as a first-rate Hotel; but the
greater number are private residences,--and certainly it must prove a
most enviable retreat for families or invalids during the winter months.
It is impossible for any spot to be better adapted for a number of
houses being built in a comparatively small compass: for the whole of
the ground is so romantically tossed about by the sportive hand of
Nature,--presenting here a lofty ridge of rocks, there a woody dell
adorned with a purling stream or a limpid pool, that most of the houses
are completely hid from each other's view.

From the bad taste which too generally prevails--we mean the
_vanity of glare_--the affectation of _elegance_,--so frequently
carried out at the expense of all propriety, we were not without
apprehension that many of the gentry at Bonchurch would also
neglect the essential rule, that _the peculiar character of every
scene demands an_ APPROPRIATE STYLE _in building and decoration_;
for it avails little to have ivy-mantled rocks and mossy cliffs,
the sunny knoll and the shady glen, with their groves and
streams,--if the Genius of the spot be not consulted, and HARMONY
made the rule of every innovation and improvement. In a word, it is
too often in building as in dress, that many persons resort to show
and refinement as the surest means of attracting the world's
admiration for their superior taste and rank! But in justice to the
Gentlemen who hav