File:The New Forest and the Isle of Wight. With eight plates and many other illustrations (1903) (14774795901).jpg

Identifier: newforestisleofw00corn (find matches)
Title: The New Forest and the Isle of Wight. With eight plates and many other illustrations
Year: 1903 (1900s)
Authors: Cornish, C. J. (Charles John), 1858-1906 Cornish, C. J. (Charles John), 1858-1906. Isle of Wight
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Publisher: London : Seeley
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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ccess in the conversion of theold harbour to daily use is the present condition of the light, runningsand near the sea. This sand must have a stratum of clay beneath it,for groves of poplar trees planted on it are now in vigorous growth. Butfor some years the land lay barely covered with cup-moss, lichen, andthin, poor grass, a haunt of rabbits and shore-birds. It is now convertedinto a golf-ground, and studded at short intervals with level lawns of fineturf for putting greens, which daily extend their area, and promisebefore long to convert the running sands into a beautiful and park-like recreation ground. The beauty of the whole scene is much increasedby the number of half-wild swans, which are constantly in movement,either swimming upon the pools and streams, or flying to and from thesea. These swans are among the natural agents busied in aiding thereclamation of the land. They feed almost entirely upon the weedswhich would otherwise choke up the dykes, and it is believed that two
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THE ISLE OF IVIGHT 67 swans do as much work in keeping the waterways free and open as couldbe done by a paid labourer. The history and fortunes of a given area of land are the constantsubject of story. The rise and fall of the importance of a particularpart of the sea, except perhaps as constituting a fishery, has seldom beenmade the theme of a historian. Yet there are certain areas of sea offthe English coasts which have an average population much greater thanthat of the adjacent land, and have maintained this pre-eminence forcenturies. There are the great roadsteads off the English coasts, placesin which ships and their crews congregate as naturally for food, shelter,or refit, as do the sea-fowl off certain parts of the coast. The proximityof a great harbour is not a necessary feature of such roadsteads. Thefleets of vessels which in certain winds lie off the Downs in theChannel have little or no communication with the shore. But usuallythe roadstead lies off a harbour, and the perm

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