Rocks,) having been left
aground by the ebbing tide: and in the winter of 1841, another,
measuring 75 feet in length, was caught near the same spot.

* * * * *

_Local Biography and History._

The following are amongst the most eminent natives of the island:

Sir JOHN CHEEKE, Knt., one of the most distinguished scholars and
virtuous men of his time: he was tutor to Edward VI, and a zealous
protestant, but being induced during the following reign to make a
public recantation, his death, which happened soon after, was
supposed to have been hastened by shame of that humiliating
exhibition.

Rev. HENRY COLE, D.D., Dean of St. Paul's, a contemporary of the
above, was born at Godshill: he shone in divinity and literature,
and was a strenuous advocate of the Roman-catholic faith.

THOs. JAMES, D.D., a learned divine and antiquary: was esteemed,
from his extensive erudition, a living library, Born at Newport,
died 1629.

ROBERT HOOK, M.D., celebrated for his extraordinary inventive
powers in almost every branch of art and science, was born at
Freshwater anno 1635, and died at an advanced age, in Gresham
College.

JOHN HOBSON, rose by his skill and courage from the obscurity of a
tailor's parish-apprentice to an admiral's rank in the reign of
Queen Anne: he headed Sir George Rooke's squadron in the attack on
Vigo harbour, where a numerous Spanish fleet was entirely captured
or burned.--The little village of Bonchurch claims the honor of his
birth-place.

We shall conclude this general chapter with a brief summary of the
local history, though the annals of a small dependent isle like this,
cannot be expected to possess any very exciting interest.

[In fact it can boast of no important ancient settlements or
records--no valued chronicles of the alternate successes and
defeats of ambitious rival princes and their contending armies, or
the unpitied sufferings of the sacrificed population: and perhaps
it would never have been mentioned in the national history, had it
not been for the imprisonment of fallen royalty in the case of
Charles I. Its situation certainly exposed it to the attacks of
Danish pirates, and subsequently of the French; but these distant
events constituting but a broken and unconnected narrative, the
ensuing brief