Excerpt from The Fortnightly Review, Vol. 25: January 1 to June 1, 1876 (Classic Reprint)
I had been spending a month inthe Channel Islands, and had during that time completed the circuit of each of them, for the most part on foot, for it had been my wish not only to make myself familiar with their scenery, dimensions, and outlines, but also to see and hear as much as my opportunities permitted of the condition of their in habitants. I returned to England by way of Southampton. As the steamer approached the Isle of Wight, I was standing in the bows, and was in thought comparing its green underoliļ¬ and smooth white scarped downs, with the dark, jagged, granite border, scantily clothed' with stunted gorse and purple heath, of the Islands I had just left, when a companion remarked how much larger the Isle before na showed than the largest of our recently made acquaintances. This result of the comparison of the two, for so he continued, takes us by surprise, because we are accustomed to look on the Isle of Wight merely as a little gem in the sea-setting of the Hampshire coast. But of course one has only to recall its N ewport, Cowes, Ventnor, Ryde, and many smaller, though well-known resorts, to be reminded that it must be far larger and far more populous than its little neighbours on the other side of the Channel.
My companion was partly right, and partly in error. It is true that the Isle has several towns, while the Islands have but two, St. Helier's and St. Peter's Port. Its acreage is far more considerable than the aggregate acreage of all the Islands. It is greatly resorted to by wealthy visitors, and it contains the head-quarters of the Royal Yacht Club, and the marine residence of Royalty itself. Still, not withstanding all these advantages, in population it falls far short, as it does also in wealth, of its little neighbours on the other side of the Channel.