high water. The banks are beautifully dressed with
scattered groves and copse-wood: and interspersed with the arable fields
and meadows are several churches, seats, villas, farms, and cottages, on
either side: and as the lands rise rather boldly, the while scene is
viewed to advantage from the water, and will be found to afford a very
delightful trip on a summer's day, to or from Cowes; the party leaving
by the returning tide after about two hours' stay at either place.

The gayest season at Newport is during the Whitsuntide Fair, and
three successive Saturdays at Michaelmas, the time when the
agricultural servants receive their wages, and re-engage for the
following year. The old custom of the female-servants assembling at
one part of the town, and the men at another, for the purpose of
engaging in new situations, is still partially kept up; these
occasions are familiarly called the "Bargain-fair Saturdays," the
middle or principal one falling on the first Saturday in October.

* * * * *

PUBLIC BUILDINGS.

Of these the most conspicuous is the GUILDHALL, situated nearly in the
centre of the town: it is rather a stately edifice of the Ionic order.
Here the magistrates of the whole island meet every Saturday for
hearing and deciding upon petty causes: and examining and committing
prisoners to the Winchester assizes, or in, minor offences to take their
trials at the quarter sessions for the Isle of Wight, formerly held at
Winchester, but which are _now_ very properly _adjourned_, to save the
inhabitants the great inconvenience and expense of crossing the water.
There are also the quarter sessions for the borough; and that excellent
institution, the County Court for the settlement of small debts.--In the
area beneath the hall is held the Saturday's market for poultry, eggs,
and butter.

Another showy building is the ISLE OF WIGHT INSTITUTION, or permanent
public Library, to which nearly all the neighbouring gentry subscribe.
Besides the reading-room and library it contains a museum for local
curiosities, &c. Temporary residents in the island may become
subscribers for six months by a payment of 25s.

The FREE-GRAMMAR SCHOOL is the only building claiming respect for its
antiquity (besides the parish-church), situated in the street leading to
the Cowes road: it was erected by subscription in the year 1619, and
duly endowed. Though recently having