s, you perceive the cottage, battery, and
residence of Captain Farrington on the rise of the hill, and beyond are
Gurnet and Harness Bays closely succeeding one another, the shores above
being well diversified with foliage and richly cultivated grounds. From
this station the coast gradually sinks towards Newtown River, where
the luxuriant woods of Swainton are perceived rising in the distance,
crowned by ~175~~Shalfleet church and a rich country as far as
Calbourne, the landscape bounded by a range of downs which stretch to
the extremity of the island. The coast at Hamsted, the farm estate of
John Nash, Esq. presents a very bold outline, and approaching Yarmouth,
which has all the appearance of an ancient French fort, the view of
the opposite point, called Norton, is very picturesque, presenting a
well-wooded promontory, adorned with numerous elegant residences; from
this spot the coast begins to assume a very bold, but sterile aspect,
composed of steep rugged slopes, and dull-coloured earthy cliffs, till
the attention of the voyager is suddenly arrested by the first view
of the Needle rocks, situate at the termination of a noble promontory
called Freshwater cliffs, which extend along a line of nearly three
miles, and at a part called Mainbench are six hundred feet above the sea
level, in some places perpendicular, and in others overhanging the ocean
in a most terrific manner; at the extreme point, or Needles, is the
light-house, where the view of the bays and cliffs beneath is beyond
description awfully sublime, and the precipices being covered with
myriads of sea-fowl of all description, who breed in the crannies of the
rocks, if called into action by the report of a gun fill the air with
screams and cries of most appalling import; the grandeur of the scene
being much increased by the singularly majestic appearance of the Needle
rocks, rearing their craggy heads above the ocean, and giving an awful
impression of the storms and convulsions which must have shaken
and devoured this once enormous mass. Their present form bears no
resemblance to their name, which was derived from a spiral rock, about
one hundred and twenty feet high, that fell in the year 1764, and left
the present fragments of its grandeur to moulder away, like the base of
some proud column of antiquity. On the opposite coast is Hurst Castle, a
circular fort, built by Henry ~176~~the Eighth; and on the north side of
the promontory is Alum Bay, the most beau