te of Madeira,
and is fanned by the sea-breezes that invigorate but do not chill. The
mildness of the winter makes it a popular resort for invalids, and many
greenhouse plants live outdoors throughout the year, the almost
perpendicular rocks of the Undercliff absorbing during the day the heat
that they radiate throughout the night. Yet at Bonchurch many who had
sought health in this beautiful region ultimately found a grave, and of
its churchyard it has been written, "It might make one in love with
death to think one would be buried in so sweet a place." The ancient
little Norman church of St. Boniface is still here, but a new and larger
church was built not long ago. Here lies Rev. W. Adams, who wrote the
allegory _Under the Shadow of the Cross_, and it is strictly true, for
the cross raised as his monument casts its shadow on the slab over his
grave. Admiral Hobson was born at Bonchurch, and ran away from the
tailor's shop in which he was apprenticed to come back knighted for his
victory over the Spaniards at Vigo Bay. Ventnor, known as the
"metropolis of the Undercliff," is beyond Bonchurch, and is also a
thriving wateringplace, above which rises the attractive spire of Holy
Trinity Church, built by the munificence of three sisters.

From Ventnor the most beautiful part of the island coast stretches
westward to Niton. The bold chalk-downs rise from their craggy bases,
the guardians of the broken terrace intervening between them and the
sea. Foliage and ivy cling to them; flowers cluster on the turf and
banks and gleam in the crevices; and little streams come down the
ravines. Here was the smallest church of England--St. Lawrence--twenty
feet long, twelve wide, and six feet high to the eaves. A chancel has
lately been added, while below are the ivy-clad ruins of the ancient
Woolverton Chapel. Near Niton, at Puckaster Cove, Charles II. landed
after a terrific storm; and beyond is Roche End, the southern point of
the island. The coast, a dangerous one, then trends to the north-west,
and wrecks there are frequent, while inland St. Catharine's Down rises
steeply, there being a magnificent view of the island from its summit,
elevated seven hundred and fifty feet. Here in the fourteenth century
was founded, on the highest part of the Isle of Wight, a chantry chapel
where a priest prayed for the mariner and at night kept a beacon burning
to warn him off the reefs. An octagonal tower of the chapel remains, but
a lighthouse su