raggy mounds:--one of these is adorned by a small
obelisk that serves to mark a beautiful feature which would otherwise be
overlooked. The cottage-lodge below is a remarkably pretty object.--See
the Plate.

This part of the Undercliff is at once picturesque and lively; there
being just sufficient houses to give the scenery a cheerful aspect,
without intrenching too much on the natural beauties of the place.

We now enter on a scene which gives us a complete picture of the
Undercliff in all its genuine lines,--for it was the subject of an
extensive landslip in the year 1799, when a tract of about one hundred
acres was disturbed, the whole sliding forward in a mass towards the
sea, rifting into frightful chasms, and alternately rising and falling
like the waves of the sea: a cottage was overturned, but fortunately no
lives were lost.

[Illustration: THE UNDERCLIFF, _Between the Sandrock Hotel & the
Chalybeate Spring,--affording the best idea of the romantic character of
that part of the Isle of Wight._]

The annexed Plate of "the Undercliff, as it appears between the
Sandrock Hotel and Blackgang Chine," is introduced in order to give an
idea of the _general aspect_ of this singular tract: the wall-like
precipice which is the land-boundary rises abruptly on the right: the
intermediate space to the sea-shore is broken into a series of craggy
knolls and dells: the carriage-road threading its way between immense
masses of the fallen cliff,--now conducted along the margin of a
dangerous slope or precipice; and now descending into a theatre of
detached rocks and wild vegetation; but even here, though the softer
charms of scenery be wanting, it proves that ...

--"Whether drest or rude,
Wild without art, or artfully subdued,
Nature in every form inspires delight."

* * * * *

>> _The individual objects in the neighbourhood of Niton, calling for
particular remark, are few; notwithstanding the general aspect of the
scenery is strikingly wild and sombre. The_ LIGHT-HOUSE _will force
itself on our attention: the_ CHALYBEATE SPRING _ought not to be passed
by unnoticed; but the crowning feature of the district is_ BLACKGANG
CHINE, _a scene of the most terrific grandeur_.

ST. CATHARINE'S LIGHT-HOUSE.

[Illustration: ST. CATHARINE'S LIGHT-HOUSE NITON, ISLE OF WIGHT.]

The building of this lofty tower was commenced in the spring of 1839,
and finished in the following