ISLE OF, lies opposite the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by a channel, varying in width from 1 to 6 miles, which has long been known as the Solent (from, it is said, solentia, solentia, to disunite.) It is placed between 1. 4. and 1. 36. W. Long., and 50. 34. and 50. 47. N. Lat. Its greatest length is computed at 22½ miles; its breadth, from N. to S., at 13¼ miles. In form it is rhomboidal, and has been aptly compared to a turbot. Its area is 98,320 acres; population in 1851, 50,324; inhabited houses, 8928; uninhabited, 559; building, 123. The gross estimated rental in 1858 was L185,518; rateable value, L164,344. For the same year the rate levied for the relief of the poor was L10,869.

The island is divided into two hundreds, named from Parishes, their position with respect to the Medina river, the East and West Medina, the former containing 14 and the latter 16 parishes. There are two rural deaneries (East and West Medina) and forty-three ecclesiastical districts. The island was designed by the 26 Henry VIII., to become the seat of a suffragan bishopric, and, at an earlier period, had been placed in charge of "a dean of the island," but it is now included in the diocese of Winchester. There are 89 churches in connection with the Anglican Establishment, containing 15,320 sittings, and 92 places of worship, with 15,400 sittings, belonging to different religious denominations.

The rivers of the island are three in number. The natural principal is the Medina (medius, the middle), which almost divides the island into two equal portions. It rises at the foot of St Catherine's Down; waters Kingston, Gatcombe, and Carisbrooke; receives the Lugley at Newport, and at Cowes, where it joins the Solent, widens into a considerable estuary. The main river, or Eastern Yar, rises near Niton, and flows past Whitwell, Godshill, Newchurch, and Sandown, into Brading Haven. The Western Yar rises at Freshwater Gate, where it is only separated from the sea by a narrow bank of pebble, flows northerly, and expands at Yarmouth into an estuary.

The geological characteristics of the Wight are of peculiar interest, and have been ably illustrated by Dr Mantell, Dr Fitton, and other eminent savants. It is crossed from east to west by a noble range of chalk-hills, rising in many places to a considerable height, from which a chain of downs branches off to the south, and terminates in the bold abrupt cliffs of St Catherine's Point. Of the central range, the Culvers, east, and the Needles, west, are the respective terminations. From these natural watchtowers the most splendid prospects are commanded of fertile pastures, leafy vales, and sequestered hollows, and beyond all, and encircling all, the gleaming waters of the channel. The most famous are—St Catherine's Down, with its dismantled lighthouse and dilapidated chantry, 769 feet above the sea-level; Appuldurcombe Down, crowned with a pillar 72 feet high, intended to commemorate Alexander of Russia's visit to England in 1814, 600 feet high; Needles Down and Lighthouse, 474 feet; Ashey Down and Beacon, 424 feet; Bembridge Down, crowned with an obelisk to the memory of the late Earl of Yarborough, 355 feet; Mottistone, 661 feet; St Boniface, 783 feet; Shanklin, 731 feet; and Week Down, 690 feet. The principal inlet or tidal lake is Brading Haven, 800 acres. The most notable chines are those of Shanklin, Luccombe, Blackgang, Walpan, Cowleaze, and Brook.

By most modern writers the Isle of Wight is identified with the Ictis of Diodorus Siculus, which he represents as divided from the mainland by a channel, passable by men and carts at low water, and as the centre or depot of the tin trade conducted between the Greek traders and the Cornish merchants. It was originally peopled by the Celts, who were afterwards expelled or subdued by the Belgae; and these, in their turn, were compelled to submit, A.D. 43, to the Roman legions under Vespasian. The Saxon kings of Wessex conquered it about 530, after a sanguinary action at Wilt-garas-byrig, supposed to be the modern Carisbrooke. In 661 it was subdued by Wulfhere, son of Penda, king of Mercia, who introduced the Christian religion; but when Ceadwalla, in 686, became possessed of it, he found that paganism was still dominant, and, in pursuance of his vow, bestowed 300 island families on Wilfrid of York, bishop of Selsey, to be converted to a purer faith.

After the Conquest it was granted as an independent lordship to William Fitzosborne, the powerful earl of Hereford. On its escheat to the Crown, through the treason of his son, it was conferred by Henry I. on Richard de Redvers, earl of Devon (A.D. 1102), and remained with his descendants until Isabella de Fortibus, countess of Albermarle, and Lady of the Wight, sold it on her deathbed to Edward I., for 6000 marks (A.D. 1293). It was afterwards governed by successive "Lords of the Wight" up to the death of Sir Edward Woodville in 1488. From that period it has been ruled by captains or governors appointed by the crown, though, of late years, the office has become a complete sinecure, and since the death of the Earl of Malmesbury in 1841 no salary has been attached to it.

The Danes invaded the Wight in 787, in 897, in 981, in 998, and again in 1003, when they destroyed the town of Waltham, supposed to be identical with the modern Werror. The French landed at St Helen's Point in 1340, but were repulsed by the islanders under Sir Theobald Russel. In 1377 they burnt the towns of Yarmouth, Newtown, and Newport, but were defeated in an attack which they hazarded upon Carisbrooke Castle. In 1545 the French forces, which had assembled under Claude D'Annebault, and fought an indecisive action with Lord Lisle at Spithead, threw themselves upon the island in four detachments at Sea View, Bembridge, Shanklin, and Bonchurch, but were repulsed with signal loss.

Besides Newport, Ryde, and Cowes, West, already described under their respective heads, the principal towns are Yarmouth, Sandown, and Ventnor. Yarmouth (pop. 572), is seated on the north-west coast, opposite Lymington, where the Yar pours its waters into the Solent. At the W. end of the town is Yarmouth Castle, erected by Henry VIII. Admiral Sir Robert Holmes, while governor of the island, entertained here Charles II. and his suite, in 1671, at his mansion, now the George Inn. Sandown (population 1030), on the shore of a beautiful bay, is attracting much consideration as a watering-place. Sandown Fort was built in 1632, by Lord Conway, in the place of a blockhouse erected about 1540, whose foundations the sea had undermined. Wilkes, the demagogue, had "a villakin" at Sandown, now Royal Heath Cottage, where he spent the latter years of his life. Ventnor (population 2660) and Bonchurch (population 523) adjoin each other, on the east coast, at the commencement of that remarkable and picturesque tract of lofty chalk cliffs and wooded terraces known as "the Undercliff." The climate is deliciously genial, and their natural charms of the most romantic order.

Nestling at the base of lofty downs, or clustering in leafy hollows, the Isle of Wight villages have usually a picturesque and attractive aspect which the tourist cannot fail to admire. Brading was formerly a market town and corporation, and is placed at the head of a wide tidal lake, known as Brading Haven. Its church is handsome, and one of the oldest in the island. Brightstone, on the southwest coast, is a lovely spot. The rectory has been held by Bishop Ken and Samuel Wilberforce, bishop of Oxford, during whose residence here the village became a favourite retreat of his father, the great philanthropist. Chale lies about half-a-mile from Blackgang Chine, a curious ravine produced in the cliff by the gradual action of the water-courses; and Chale Bay, a rock-bound sweep of ocean, which has been the scene of many a disastrous wreck. Carisbrooke is famous not only for its castle, but its church, which boasts of a noble perpendicular tower, and some interesting memorials. There are interesting churches at Freshwater, Gatemore, and Shorwell; and at St Lawrence's is the smallest but one in England. The churches at Shalfleet, Wootton, and Yaverland are partly Norman.

Appuldurcombe (the valley of the apple trees), the principal ancient seat of the Worsleys, where Henry VIII. and his sons, minister Cromwell were entertained in 1539, is now degraded into an hotel. Of the old family seats and manorial mansions, there remain but Nunwell (Sir H. Oglander), near Brading, visited by Charles I. in November 1647; Swainston (Sir J. Simeon), near Calbourne, originally a palace of the bishops of Winchester; and North Court (Sir H. Gordon), near Shorwell, a fine old Jacobean house. Mottistone, which belonged to the Cheke family, has been converted into a farm. The best modern houses are Steephill (A. Hambrough, Esq.), 1 mile from Ventnor; Appleby Tower (G. Young, Esq.), and West Hill (Sir Aug. Clifford), at Ryde. St Clair (Col. Vernon Harcourt), near Ryde; Northwood Park (G. H. Ward, Esq.); Norris Castle (R. Bell, Esq.), and East Cowes Castle (Mrs Tudor), are mansions of considerable pretensions. Her Majesty's marine palace at Osborne is a pile of stately and imposing character.

It cannot be said that the Isle of Wight is deficient in those associations which are so dear to the antiquarian and able historian. Carisbrooke Castle is not only of interest architecturally, from its Norman keep and fine Edwardian gateway, but from the memories which attach to it. Here William the Conqueror surprised and discomfited Odo, bishop of Bayeux, on his way to Italy to assert his claim to the popedom. Here the De Redvers held their state; William de Vernon, one of the stout barons who resisted the tyranny of John; and Isabella de Fortibus, "the Lady of the Isle," whose almost regal splendour has been commemorated by the old chroniclers. From November 23, 1647, to November 29, 1648, it was the prison of Charles I., who made two abortive attempts at escape from his thralldom. The Princess Elizabeth, his daughter, died within its walls, September 8, 1650. Quarr Abbey, founded in 1132, was once a Cistercian house of some pretensions. The body of the Lady Cicely, daughter of Edward IV., was brought hither from her house at Standen for interment in 1507. The remains are inconsiderable. At Mottistone there are two or three singular stones, which have been supposed to belong to a Druidic cromlech. The barrows on the downs are numerous, and have yielded some interesting Celtic and Saxon relics. A good Roman villa has been recently discovered at Carisbrooke. Traces of ancient British villages may be seen at Rowborough, Newbarns, and Gallibury.

This beautiful island has not been fertile in great men. Newport has given birth to three worthies, Sir Thomas Fleming, L.C.S., temp. James I., and the two literati, Dr Thomas and Mr Richard James. Dr Hooke, one of the early members of the Royal Society, was born at Freshwater; Admiral Sir Thomas Hopson, at Bonchurch; and greatest of all, Dr Arnold, the famous head-master of Rugby, at East Cowes. Tennyson resides at Faringford.

[Sir Richard Worsley's History of the Isle of Wight; Sir H. Englefield's Isle of Wight; Tomkins' and Barber's Descriptive Tours; Adams's History, Topography, and Antiquities; Dr Mantell's Geology of the Island; Dr