THE ISLE OF WIGHT. CHAPTER I. THE MAN-CARRIAGE. IN the frontispiece you will see a picture of a very pretty hotel in the Isle of Wight, where Florence spent nearly a fortnight, with her mother, and Grimkie, and John, one summer while they were in England. This hotel, and what the children did while there, will be fully described in a future chapter. All I have to say about it here is, that it was seeing a picture of this hotel in a shop-window at Brighton that led Florence to think she would like to go to the Isle of Wight. It would be charming, she thought, to live in such a pretty hotel, situated, not in a town, but among woods and gardens, and with such a beautiful view of the sea as there must be from it, and of the ships and boats coming and going. I think, however, that what chiefly attracted Florence's attention to this hotel, was that it was so antique and venerable in its appearance, and above all that it had a thatched roof. "We have seen a great many thatched roofs in England," she said to John, as they were looking at the picture in the shop-window, "but we have never lived in a house that had one." "And besides," said John, "perhaps I could reach up my hand from some of the windows, where the roof comes down pretty close to them, and find some bird's nests among the straw,— humming-birds, perhaps, or robins." "Very likely," said Florence. This was a very charming idea, but, unfortunately, I imagine that, though birds do often build nests under the thatch of a house or barn, Johnny would be more likely to encounter caterpillars' nests and spiders, than humming-birds or even robins, by putting his hand up from the windows under a thatched roof like this. The conversation above described took place at Brighton, which is a large and handsome town on the southern coast of England, not very far from the point opposite to which the Isle of Wight is situated. The reason why a town has been built in this place is because the water is very shallow there off the shore. It is a curious fact that along the coasts of England, towns are built in some places because the water is deep. there, and in other places for exactly the opposite reason, namely, because it is shallow. If the water is deep in any place along the coast, there ships can come in easily, and approach close to the land, to be unladen. Accordingly it is in these places that towns for business spring up, especially if a portion of the deep water is inclosed by land, so as to form a sheltered bay or harbor where vessels may lie safe at anchor while they are waiting for their cargoes. On the other hand, if the water is shallow in any place off the shore, and especially if it has a smooth sandy bottom, as it almost always has in such cases, it makes a fine place for people to bathe. They can either wade out themselves over the sandy bottom, or they can have bathing machines, as they are called, which are little houses on wheels, large enough for people to dress and undress in, with a door and steps to go down into the water. These machines are backed down the sloping, sandy bottom till they get to where the water is deep enough, and then stop, and the people that are inside then go down into the water. Thus, in places on the coast where the water is deep, the town which is built becomes a place |