LETTERS ON THE ISLE OF WIGHT.* THE author of these

attractive volumes, the late Rev. E. Boucher James, was for many years the vicar of Carisbrooke. In a short biographical sketch written by his brother-in-law, Sir Arthur Charles, the late Judge, and placed at the beginning of the work, we learn that Mr. James, who was born at Carlisle in 1819, was elected a Scholar of Queen's College, Oxford. in 1838. After taking his degree he travelled for a time on the Continent. In 1849 he was elected Fellow, and later on held the offices of Tutor, Dean, and Bursar of his College. In 1856 he became Senior Proctor of the University. At Oxford he enjoyed the personal friendship of such men as Dean Stanley, Jowett, Pattison, Goldwin Smith, and Connington. The late Professor Freeman was a lifelong friend. After taking orders he was for a time at Blackheath, and in 1858 was presented to the living of Canis- brooke with Northwood, the largest and most important living in the gift of Queen's College. Previous to his marriage in 1860, Mr. James built a new vicarage, and it was during operations in connection- with this work that the fine pave- ments and other vestiges of the well-known Roman villa were laid open to the day. Here he lived for thirty-five years the quiet and useful life of an English country clergyman, and here, after a short illness, he died in 1892.

There is something very fascinating about the Isle of Wight, and it rarely fails to exercise a charm over those who know it. Its varied scenery, apart from its historic interest, is quite sufficient to account for this. Sir Walter Scott speaks of "the shores of that beautiful island, which he who once sees never forgets, through whatever part of the world his future path may lead him." Readers of Miss Austen's novel, Mansfield Park, will remember how Fanny Price, who came from Portsmouth, gave offence to her cousins by her attach- ment to the Isle of Wight. "She thinks of nothing but the Isle of Wight, and she calls it the Island, as if there were no other island in the world." Although the vicar of Canis- brooke, like little Fanny, was an " overer," it is clear, from the internal evidence of these letters, that he would have merited similar blame. Yet dear as to him was the Island, "This precious stone set in the silver sea," it was Carisbrooke that held the highest place in his affec- tions. He seems to have loved every stick and stone in his parish. For a man of his antiquarian and historical tastes, he was indeed happily situated. He ministered in an ancient church, a good example of Transition-Norman work, un- spoiled by the hand of the restorer, preaching from the Puritan pulpit, dated 1658, in which he took at much delight. In his garden, preserved by his care, were the remains of the Roman villa ; whilst from the windows of the vicarage he looked across the little valley of the Lukely brook to the lofty mound on which stand the ruins of the castle. What stores of historic interest and memory gather round these crumbling walls, this series of letters enables us to appreciate. They were written to the Isle of Wight County Press, but they possess real and lasting value. They have been collected and arranged in a permanent form by the widow of the late vicar, who has very wisely, as we think, while placing them in chronological order, left them

• Letters, Arehzological and Historical. Relating to the Isle of Wight. By the late Be,. E. Boucher James. LA. London ; Henry Frowde.

almost in their original form. The style of these letters, in- formal and colloquial, is one of their attractions ; and another not less pleasing feature is the great fairness of judgment shown by the author, who is above party or sect. Dealing in the main with matters of local interest, they frequently come in contact with and illustrate the general antiquities and history of England. Nor is this surprising. Small as the Isle of Wight is, its geology offers an epitome of the cretaceous and tertiary systems of rocks, and is a model of the phenomena of stratification. In a similar way its history may be regarded as an epitome or model of the history of England. "Within its limited area may be traced the successive layers of conquest and occupation, first by the Roman, then by the Teuton Jute, and lastly by the Norman." There is hardly an important episode in the history of England that does not find its reflection in that of the island. Yet, bearing this fact in mind, it is still impossible not to feel astonishment at the great number of names of noteworthy persons mentioned in these pages who were in some way or another connected with the Island.

These letters comprise a period extending from A.D. 43 to 1886. In the earlier ones, Mr. James writes of various in- vasions which the Island underwent, and of the introduction and establishment of Christianity. These are intermingled with, and succeeded by, other letters referring to the govern- ment of the Island, to the building of its churches, its priories, and Quan Abbey, and to the social life and habits of its inhabitants. Among others is a letter on "An Over- whelming Catastrophe for the Island," a little-known but most tragic event. In 1488 Sir Edward Woodville, Captain of the Island, induced its gentlemen to measure swords with the French. Forty gentlemen and four hundred from the stoutest of the commonalty sailed from St. Helen's for

France, joined the Duke of Brittany's force, and in the battle of St. Anbin's were all slain except one boy :— " That boy returned to the Isle of Wight with his only message, such an one as perhaps no other person before or since —with the exception of Dr. Bryden at the gates of Jellalabad, in the miserable Affghan war of 1841—has ever had to deliver—that he was the sole remnant of an army. This total destruction of the English force was owing to the French field artillery and the use of gunpowder in their ordnance, before which the levies from the Isle of Wight, armed only with pikes, bows, and arrows, could make no stand."

There is no record of how the news of the tragedy was received in the Island, no dirge or ballad to tell the mournful tale. Others of these letters are devoted to notices of the Island worthies, and of their manor-houses and homes.

There are few of these letters on which we should not like to touch. All will be found readable and full of information. Their chief interest, it must be confessed, centres around Carisbrooke and its castle, and this is not surprising. Wiht- gara-byrig, the "fortified place of the men of Wight," was

the central stronghold of the Island, the Norman castle, with its Edwardian gateway, being the abode of its Governor

or Captain. Among those who held this important office we find the names of Thomas Cromwell; Earl of Essex ; of Lord Southampton, the friend and patron of Shakespeare ; of Mr.

Harry Esmond's honoured and beloved Commander, General Webb; and of that officer's rival, the Earl of Cadogan. The time when the castle, as the prison of Charles I., was, in Carlyle's words, "the centre of all factious hopes, of world- wide intrigues," is the best known, and perhaps the most im- portant, period of its history. Charles I., we are reminded by Hr. James, had been in the Island three times before his coming in 1648. It is well known that the authorities were aware of all the details of the plot for the King's second attempt at escape, but the question as to who informed them is a mystery. Mr. James thinks that the traitor may be found in Lilly, the astrologer, who had the credulous Mrs.

Jane Whorwood in his power, and had advised her where to get a saw made to cut the iron bars asunder. Lilly was an unscrupulous villain, quite equal to this treachery, but no distinct evidence is forthcoming. We are pleased

to find in these pages the pretty story from Macaulay of how Dorothy Osborne in 1648 was carried prisoner to the castle, with her father and brother, and how by her

courage and address she not only gained the release of all her party, but won the heart of Temple, who happened to be on a visit to Colonel Hammond, Governor of the Island. "The cross-barred wooden gates of the castle had seldom, if ever, been swung open to receive so fascinating a

culprit as Mistress Osborne. The Governor's kinsman came as a spectator to her trial, saw, and was conquered." To this happy chance do we owe her most delightful letters to Temple, full of her bright wit and tender womanly sym- pathy. In writing of the seventeenth century, Mr. James naturally makes great use of the Oglander Memoirs, and of Mr. Long's admirable introduction thereto. We find also letters on many persons who were natives of the Island, or dwelt within its shores, who sat in Parliament for one or other of its boroughs, or crossed the field of its history. One of the most interesting of these is on William George Ward, "most generous of Ultramontanes," and a friend and neighbour of our author.

Some of the romance of the Island has been dispersed in the forty years since Mr. James went to Carisbrooke. Pic- turesque fishing hamlets have grown into ugly, straggling towns, and railways have cut up the island in various direc- tions. The "thin red line" of villas has not hesitated to creep along the Carisbrooke and Newport Road, and invade Carisbrooke itself. Old has given place to new in too many instances. Yet there is still a great deal of beauty left. Many Jacobean manor houses remain pretty much as they were two hundred and fifty years ago, and there are great sweeps of turfy downs, pieces of fine coast scenery, and "places of nestling green" still to be found within the Island. The perusal of a book like this, in which history and geo- graphy have embraced each other, will give an added pleasure to the scenery of the Isle of Wight. These volumes should be found on the shelves of all who are interested in that still delightful spot. Nor can they be neglected by any future writer on the history of the Island, to which they form so noteworthy and valuable a contribution.