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Show fel4Wipi rrV . 1 " v - - O x . . ' . A "!; J I", i Floating Bridge Between Cowes and East Cowea. Prepared by NatlonM Geographic Society, Washington. D. C WNU service. ENGLAND'S sunny Isle of Wight is a sort of cork in the harbor of Southampton. The incoming tide splits on the island. It piles up the Solent funnel on one side; then, a few hours later, it follows fol-lows through Spithead on the other side. Tfeirt is why the world's biggest big-gest liners can dock at Southampton. Southamp-ton. On the landward coast of the island is-land is Cowes, famous city of regattas. re-gattas. Along its narrow streets quaint, ancient houses alternate with stores that display anchors and steering wheels, nautical caps and field glasses, marine photographs photo-graphs and all the burnished brass appurtenances of yachting. Every few doors tearooms offer tempting tempt-ing scones and crumpets; and there are miniature branches of famous shops of Regent street and Picadilly. Along the water front spreads the spacious Esplanade, with the Royal Squadron headquarters projecting pro-jecting upon It. This is the yachting yacht-ing capital of the world. The sun glistens upon the plate glass of the protruding gallery, grandstand for royalty and high naval officers, who largely constitute the membership member-ship of the "most exclusive club in the world." There they watch the races of Regatta week, when the Solent waters wa-ters are flecked by fleecy clouds of canvas, dotted by rainbow bunting bunt-ing and pennants, and, when night comes, aglitter with myriad bobbing lights. Members of this club, and none other, may fly the white pennant pen-nant of St. George on their yachts; only members and officers of the Royal navy are privileged to land at its near jetty. One world-famous yachtsman, who spent millions upon his hobby, was not admitted to membership until shortly before his death. By night or day all the big ships that put in at Southampton must pass the deeper channel within half a mile of Cowes. The parapet para-pet of the Esplanade seems built as an elbow support to keep sea-gazers sea-gazers from tumbling into the water. wa-ter. All the houses on the gallerylike gallery-like hillside of the town have enormous enor-mous plate-glass windows turned toward the sea. As a place to watch the world go by In ships Cowes is an unsurpassed marine grandstand. East Cowes Is Industrious. Across the leisurely Medina river, East Cowes takes on the industries which Cowes proper, and consciously con-sciously prim, seems to spurn. There Is a ship-building yard which supplies sup-plies lifeboats, for steamers and for beach guards, and there is an aircraft air-craft factory which builds amphibian amphib-ian planes. Every store on the precarious hillside hill-side streets is a reminder of the island's is-land's Intense preoccupation with the sea, offering paraphernalia ranging from oyster tongs to hawsers, haw-sers, and there are many shops that make shiny marine engineering parts. It was among the marshlands of East Cowes that Queen Victoria as a girl collected seaweed, and formed an attachment for the Island that led to her purchase of Osborne House, which became her favorite place of residence. It Is th meadows where cabbages, carrots, and broccoli grow, or sheep and cattle cat-tle graze. Forests and Truck Farms. From the thick forests of the northern Island came the timbers of many an old mansion and cottage of southern England, and today their dining room tables are provided pro-vided with vegetables by the Wight's truck gardens and rich milk from its herds of Guernseys. Anyone who has eaten in English inns or on English trains must wonder about the source of all the cabbage served with potatoes at nearly every meal. Wight can account for many tons of it. Soon the trees and farms give ! way to vast expanses of acres carpeted car-peted with heather, gorse, ferns, and occasional low, wind-blown trees. The downs, with as many sectional names as a London street, are formed by chalk uplands which stretch straight west and east across the Island, humping to some 700 feet at places, and thrusting fractured fragments into the sea at the Needles on the west and Culver Cliff on the east. The pedestrian pe-destrian who yields to the spell of their lonely paths gets an Impression Impres-sion of a height much greater than the altitude warrants. One can climb across them in an hour's walk at their widest part. The southern half of Wight is a "bowl," sagging between the downs and the seaside cliffs that look so bleak to ship passengers as they round the island for Southampton. Barren they are, these corrugated cliffs, but the islanders call them their sun trap because they cut off the fogs and temper the ocean winds. The trees are not so many.but the soil is fertile, the climate milder, mild-er, and the crop yield greater In this sheltered saucer. Most of Wight's attraction for visitors and its wealth of historic associations ranging from the Roman occupation, through Jutish immigration, Danish assault, French attacks, and pirate raids cling to its coast. Eastward from sedate Cowes is the up-and-coming resort town of Ryde, with Its lamp posts that wear garlands of flowers, its tiny tramcars, and its spick promenade prom-enade where, on cloudless days, women knit as they garner sun tan. Second only to Cowes week is the regatta of Ryde's Royal Victoria Vic-toria Yacht club. And a pretty touch Is a children's regatta, held at their large boating lake, where young mariners sail elaborate toy craft and ride about In paddle-wheel paddle-wheel boats propelled by handles. Brading an Old Town. An hour's easy walk south of Ryde Is "Ye Kynge's Towne of Brading," where benches and bathing machines, ma-chines, piers and yachts seem very far away. Yet along Brading's high and dry High street ships once sailed under the eaves of the timbered tim-bered buildings, and one might pick from a score of shipmasters to take a cargo into the most distant port Brading recalls the days when towns were set far up the Island's meager rivers, or well back in some arm of the sea, as a protection against invasion or pi-rate pi-rate raids. Yet the inhabitants ex-pert ex-pert in their knowledge of tides' and treacheroug channels, could put out to salt water to fish or trade Long ago silt blocked Brading's harbor, har-bor, and now dikes have thrust the sea some two miles from Its center Brading church, the oldest in the Island, is mentioned In Domesday Book. In Its chapel Is burled Sir John Oglander, who was garnerln-his garnerln-his sa ty chronicles of Wight while the Pilgrims were struggling to sur vlve at Plymouth and the early Maryland settlers were putting forth from Cowes to St. Mary's. Preserved In a house 'near the church are the village stocks, and one may decipher from the Town Book the offenses for which c " toT.Tth T,Sh1d- Sm t0 be seen, too, is the large bull ring, souvenir of the days when bull-baiting S a national pastime. Tlie Island governor annually contributed five gu neas to buy the bull, which, after baiting, was given to the poor-East poor-East of Brading, sheltered ,,,, the cliffs, is the lovely seaside vlT lage of Eembrldge, which the wor d seems to have passed by. rL Tn lies along the embank, only level mile on the island "wl, has severed Brading Harbor f , to Tt, PVVn' "na 111,3 l" o rand." 6 0S1,Cct 0f "Llto Hoi. day, very much as she left it, a gift of King Edward VII to the nation na-tion In her memory. The terrace commands the marine view which the good queen loved, vistas of blue ocean through groves of exotic trees corks, ilexes, deodars, as well as pines and cedars. The one chamber of truly regal magnificence is the Durbar room, with its stone walls and ceilings carved in oriental designs, its stone peacock extending its colorful color-ful tail over the large fireplace, its cases with the gold and jewel offerings offer-ings of fabulous Indian potentates. In her black mushroom hat and white shawl, the queen would ride for miles in her carriage and pair around her own grounds. When she drove out through the Island roads she was preceded by an outsider, out-sider, she would greet the residents, resi-dents, often stopping to chat with neighbors of the countryside. To reach any part of the Isle of Wight entails no longer journey than taking a taxi across Greater London; it is not quite 23 miles long and nowhere wider than 13 miles. Driving due south from Cowes, across its axis, gives a quick picture of Its peculiar geography At first the countryside is wooded and the clearings are fields and |