le for their neatness and comfortable
appearance, as well as for the abundant display of creepers and
flowering shrubs with which most of them are adorned.

Two miles further on we enter BRIXTON, a populous village in the heart
of a rich tract of cultivation: is one mile from the shore, and screened
from the north by a range of lofty downs. The Church is rather spacious,
and not unpicturesque; many of the cottages are neat, some few furnished
for lodgings: and there is a comfortable small inn. This place is
commonly called Brison, and one clergyman names it Brightstone.

MOTTISTONE succeeds: a pretty hamlet nearly shrouded in wood, with a
very picturesque church. On an elevated part of the farm are the remains
of some small druidical temple called LONGSTONE, which is a rude piece
of rock of a quadrangular figure, evidently erected by art, and rears
itself about twelve feet above the ground; near it another large stone
lies partly buried in the earth, of not less than eight feet long.

BROOK is the last village we pass till we reach Freshwater: much the
same character as the others: the Mansion-house, which is surrounded
with wood, being the only object to notice, besides the little church,
which we shall presently pass, posted solitarily on an eminence near the
foot of the down.

* * * * *

CHAPTER IV.

THE WESTERN QUARTER OF THE ISLAND, DISTINGUISHED

FOR ITS

SUBLIME SCENERY.

* * * * *

_The Road over the Downs from Brooke to Freshwater-gate._

We shall now leave the familiar scenes of cultivation and of
village life for a time, to enjoy the charms of unbounded prospect,
as we journey for four miles over a succession of pasturing downs,
where in many parts our road will be upon a natural carpet of the
finest turf.

Tasteless indeed must be those who can travel over these lofty and
_beautiful_ downs, without experiencing the most lively
gratification from the checquered and magnificent prospects which
invite their contemplation on every side: but to enjoy the pleasure
in perfection we must occasionally pause, to discriminate (by
reference to a friend or a map,) some of the more remarkable
features.--Looking to the westward, the high cliffs of Freshwater
stretch away in a noble promontory of three miles, forming the
foreground to the soft azure perspective of the coast