WIGHT, ISM or, All island in the English Channel, included in Hampshire, and separated from the mainland of England by the Solent (q.v.) (Alap: England, E 6). It is 56 miles in circuit, and has an area of 145 square Population. in 1901, 82.387. The soil of the northern half of the island is for the most part a stiff clay, growing oats; of the southern, a red loam which produces crops of barley. Bed wheat is grown in other parts of the island. The chalk downs afford admirable pasturage for sheep, cele brated for the pureness of their wool. They fur nish the London market with spring lamb. The ehief exports are wool, corn, flour, cement stones (septaria 1. and white ghiss-house sand. Newport is the capital: the other towns are Hyde, Cowes, and Vent nor, all exceedingly popular summer re sorts. Year Cocos is the royal domain of Os borne, formerly a favorite residence of Queen Victoria, and after her death presented to the nation by Edward VII. Cowes is noted as the great English yachting centre. is railway communication hetwcen Hyde and Ventnor, and bet Nveen Cowes and Newport. The chief physical feature of the islaml, to which it owes its shape and much of its beauty, is an undulating range of chalk downs, extending from the Culver cliffs on the east to the Needles on the west, rising to its greatest elevation in lottiston Down, 661 feet above the sea. The river Medina, rising near the southern extremity of the island, flows north through a gap in this range, expands into a tidal estuary below „Newport, and llows into the Si )1VIlt at Cowes. range of chalk downs, of greater elevation—Saint Boniface Downs, 7s3 feet, ele.—rises at the southern point of the isl and, and expands into a broad promontory, the southern face of which forms the picturesque district known as the Cnderetiff, or 'back of the island,' in which is situated Ventnor. The whole of this part of the island is sheltered from cold winds. and enjoys a well-merited reputation as a residence for invalids suffering from consump thm or any other pulmonary disease. Its re markable healthfulness is attested by the death rate of time district, WIlitql is the lowest in the kingdom: while the mildness of its climate is borne witness to by the luxuriance of the myrtles and other exotics whieh live through the winter without protection.
The great variety of strata displayed within so small an area renders the Isle of 1Vight one of the best available localities for the geological student. in inn Bay, at the western extremity of time island, the rapid succession of vertical layers of sands and clays of bright and varied Irene produces a singular and beautiful effect. Isolated masses of chalk, which in consequence of their superior hardness have survived the ma rine and atmospheric waste, form the well-known Needles, at the western opening of the Solent, and time picturesque rocks of Freshwater Bay.
The cliffs of the UnderelitT are of the upper green sand or firestone, underlying the chalk. Below this comes the gault or blue marl. 'l'o the action of the land-springs upon this formation the land slips to which the back of the island owes its beauty are due. The lower greensand succeeds the gault, occupying the greater part of the area between the north and south (-balk downs. This presents a wall of eliff to the sea, diversified with many narrow picturesque gorges, locally known as chines. The fresh-water Wealden formation is the lowest visible in the island. Bones of the colossal iguanodon and other saurians are found in this formation. The antiquities include sepul chral barrows on the downs, Saxon burial places in several localities, the remains of a Roman villa, with a tessellated pavement, at Carisbrooke, and the scanty remains of Quarr Abbey, near Hyde. Carisbrooke Castle is a fine ruin, occupy ing a commanding position.
The Isle of Wight is supposed to have been the tin mart of the Greek traders mentioned un der the name of /ctis by Diodorus Sieulns. The Romans knew it as Feria or Vcctis, which is the Latinized form of the native name. It was con quered for the Ilomans by Vespasian in the reign of Claudius (A.D. 43). Cerdie, the founder of the Kingdom of Wessex, took the island in A.D. 530. In A.D. 661 it was reduced by Wulphere of herein. and given to Ethelwold. King of Sussex. from whom it was wrested (A.D. 686) by Ceadwalla of Wessex, to whom. under the influ ence of Wilfrid, Archbishop of York, the island owed the introduction of Christianity. During the three centuries preceding the Norman Con quest it was repeatedly devastated by the Danish pirates. who made it their stronghold to which they retired with their plunder. William the Conqueror gave it to his kinsman, Fitz-Osborne; Henry 1. transferred it to the family of De Redvers, in whose hands it remained till the reign of Edward I., when it passed by sale to the Crown. During the French wars of Edward III. and his succe--sors the island was repeatedly in vaded and pillaged by the French. At the close of the reign of Henry VIII. the Armada dis patched by Francis I., under the command of D'Annebault, made several landings on the coast, and inflicted some damage, but was ultimately driven back by the prowess of the islanders. The most interesting event in the history of the isl and is the imprisonment of Charles I. in Caris brooke Castle, after his flight from Hampton Con rt.