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Page 40
As the carriage-road now pursues its mazy course through ...
"Crags, knolls, and mounds, confus'dly hurl'd,
The fragments of an earlier world,"
We soon reach the locality of the SANDROCK CHALYBEATE SPRING: easily
recognized by the low thatched roof of the Dispensary Cottage, that
stands nearly on the brow of the cliff, as the water issues from a rock
considerably below, inclosed in a plain piece of masonry. It has been
proved by repeated analyses, that there is a larger proportion of iron
and alumine in this than in any other mineral water yet discovered: and
its medicinal properties are therefore decidedly indicated in the cure
of those disorders arising from a relaxed fibre and languid circulation,
such as indigestion, flatulency, nervous disorders, and debility from a
long residence in hot climates.
Great improvement has taken place in the neighbourhood of the Spring,
within these few years, by _extensive draining_: thus preventing the
land-soaks and springs during winter from settling into frequent pools,
and thereby reducing the soil to the repulsive condition of a sterile
waste of quagmire and sliding rocks, and in every succeeding summer
drying up into a thousand dangerous holes and fissures. The ground in
fact is now sufficiently firm to invite the builder to the erection of
some good houses; and the surface exhibits a healthy herbage: roads have
also been made to the shore. A large and handsome-looking house, called
an "Italian Villa," has been erected on the east side of the
Spring,--but if the architect ever copied such for his model, he
certainly should have selected a site more appropriate, that would have
justified his choice of style by its genial aspect, its greenwood
shades, and the vegetative luxuriance of the soil.
* * * * *
The shore here is called ROCKEN-END RACE, being composed of vast
confused heaps of rocky fragments precipitated in the course of ages
from the cliffs above, and now stretching out into the sea for nearly a
mile and a half.--Between this and Freshwater lie other formidable
reefs, respectively named from the nearest villages, ATHERFIELD,
CHILTON, and BROOKE; they are extremely dangerous: and previously to the
erection of the new Light-house, occasioned frequent shipwrecks.
* * * * *
BLACKGANG CHINE,
[Illustration: BLACKGANG CHINE, I.W. _Taken from below the new Bridge,
which is a very general point of view, as the descent to the shore
thence becomes more abrupt and difficult._]
"Where hills with naked heads the tempests meet--
Rocks at their sides, and torrents at their feet,"
Deservedly ranks among the most striking scenes in the island, it is the
termination of the Undercliff, and of a character the very reverse of
Shanklin; for all here is terrific grandeur--without a green spray or
scarcely a tuft of verdure to soften its savage aspect. It differs also
from that sylvan spot, in being much more lofty, abrupt, and irregular:
though it does not penetrate the land so far. Both have their respective
admirers: this for its awful sublimity--that for its romantic beauty.
At the head of the Chine is a spacious Hotel, close to the road, and
distinguished by the name of the place.
The shelving sides of this gloomy chasm are proved to be little less
than 500 feet from the beach in perpendicular height; they are in a
constant state of decay--more or less considerable according to the
degree of rain and frost during winter: for the same description of
soil, namely, a mixture of clay and loose absorbent marle, interspersed
with veins of gravel, predominate here as we have seen elsewhere in its
neighbourhood. The only relief in fact to the dusky tint of the scene,
is two or three horizontal strata of yellowish free-stone, which give it
a step-like appearance. The most remarkable feature is a tremendous
gloomy hollow or cave, scooped out of the cliffs on the sea-shore by the
united action of the waves and the stream: the latter falls over a ledge
of the stubborn rock at the top, 70 feet high: and after heavy floods,
forms a noble cascade of one unbroken sheet: but like others of its
class, in summer fails in its amount, and often degenerates into a
noiseless dribble.
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