Wight, THE ISLE OF, with the exception of the Isle of Man the largest island in the English seas, lies off the southern coast of the kingdom, separated from Hampshire by the Solent, a channel mainly ranging between 2 and 4 miles in breadth, but only a mile in width on the west, between Hurst Castle and Cliff End, while it expands to 7 miles between Southsea and the Foreland on the east. In shape Wight is an elongated rhomboid, and the outline has been fancifully likened to that of a turbot. Its extreme length, east to west from the Foreland to the Needles, is about 23 miles, and its extreme breadth, north to south, Cowes to St Catharine's Point, is about 13 miles. The area is calculated at 145 sq. m., or 92,931 acres, but was formerly estimated at much more. A bold range of chalk downs runs somewhat irregularly east and west the entire length of the island, terminating on the west in the fine isolated peaks of the Needles—so well known in the navigation of the Channel, and especially in connection with the port of Southampton—and breaking off on the east at Culver and Bembridge. These downs at several points reach from 500 to 700 feet; but they are excelled in altitude by the high land on the extreme south or 'back' of the island, where St Boniface Down above Ventnor attains 787 feet. This is the highest point of the isle, though St Catharine's Beacon to the westward is only half-a-dozen feet less. The more elevated ground being thus on the south, the chief streams flow to the north, and three of them traverse nearly the whole breadth. Thus the eastern Yar rises on St Catharine's Hill, and falls into a landlocked lake-like estuary at Brading, partially cutting off a peninsular region on the east, known as the Isle of Bembridge. The chief river of the island, the Medina, also rises at St Catharine's, and runs directly northward to the Solent at Cowes. In its course it divides Wight into two fairly equal parts—east and west Medina. Towards the western extremity is another Yar, which rises within a short distance of the southern coast cliffs, and has its embouchure at Yarmouth. This peninsulates a bold district known as the Isle of Freshwater. Smaller streams flow northward to a many-branched tidal inlet at Newtown; and another finds its way through the Wootton Creek between Cowes and Ryde. The streams which flow southward are unimportant so far as size is concerned, and their courses are short, but they play an important part in specialising the characteristics of the island by the formation of 'clines,' narrow ravines worn through the soft rocks by which they pass into the sea—Blackgang the most weird, and Shanklin the most romantic. The geology teems with interest, ranging from the Wealden to the Eocene, and fossiliferous localities of the greatest importance are numerous. The strata form an ascending series generally from south to north. The Wealden beds appear on the south-west coast, chiefly between Atherfield and Compton Bay, where the Wealdens join the Upper and Lower Greensand, Gault, and Chalk, as also at Redcliff Bay near Sandown. The Lower Greensand and Gault extend generally from Atherfield to St Catharine's Point, and from Bonchurch to Sandown. Northward lies the Chalk, chiefly to be noted at Freshwater and Culver. In the remaining portion of the area Oligocene and Eocene beds are finely and characteristically developed. Headon Hill and Alun Bay (long noted likewise for its variegated cliff sands) are the best localities for studying these strata generally, while there are also noteworthy fossiliferous fresh-water deposits, as at Binstead. The flora of the island is rich, especially in chalk and seaside plants; and marine algae are plentiful.
Wight has long been in repute for the mildness of its climate and the productiveness of its soil; and the former of these features, in conjunction with the picturesque variety and exceeding charm of its landscapes, and the ever-changeable attractions of its romantic coast-line have made it one of the best known of modern seaside centres. It claims some special attention for each of its favourite resorts. Ventnor, best known of all, is delightfully seated in the heart of the singularly beautiful scenery of the rugged Undercliff, a picturesque broken belt of shifted land between cliff and sea. Sandown boasts a long stretch of beach, and Freshwater is the centre of the finest rock scenery. But of late years almost every village near the coast has laid itself out for the reception of visitors, and creeks and bays are dotted with hotels. Of ordinary trade there is comparatively little, though there is a fair amount of yacht-building at Cowes, which maintains its position as one of the chief yachting centres of the world. Railways traverse the island between Ryde and Ventnor, with a branch to Benbridge; and there are lines from both Ventnor and Ryde to Newport, and from Newport respectively to Yarmouth and Freshwater, and to Cowes. Ryde has a fine pier. Wight has come the more into favour of recent years from the fact that it was chosen by Queen Victoria as the seat of her marine residence at Osborne. The house, which faces the Solent, eastward of Cowes, was built in 1845. Farringford, near Freshwater, was the favourite residence of Lord Tennyson. Parkhurst Forest, once a royal hunting ground, and of some value as a source of timber for the navy, is now a pleasant tract of woodland, but of little utilitarian importance.
There are yet traces on the downs, in barrows and cairns, of the earlier inhabitants of the island, but its history really begins with its conquest by Vespasian as Insula Vectis. From this name of Vectis it has been suggested that it may have been the Iktis of Diodorus Siculus, to which the British tin was brought in carts at low tide, but apart from other difficulties there is no evidence that the Solent could ever have been fordable in the historic period. There is, however, ample evidence that the island was well appreciated by the Romans. In all probability they had their chief station at Carisbrooke, the central stronghold, and in that village still exist the remains of a small Roman villa. The foundations of a Roman building of much more importance were discovered in 1880 at Morton, near Brading, the pavements of which are remarkably fine. Cerdic is said to have reduced the island in 530; but it did not fall definitely under Saxon rule until later. After the Norman Conquest it was given to William Fitzosborne, but was forfeited by his son, and passed to the Redvers family, who thence took the title of 'lords of the isle.' Baldwin de Redvers, second Earl of Devon, founded there the Cistercian abbey of Quarr, of which a few traces still remain; and in the House of Redvers Wight remained until the death in 1292 of Isabella de Fortibns, domina insule, when it passed to the crown. Carisbrooke Castle, the most important relic of antiquity in the island, is mainly connected with these Redverses. Norman work may be traced, but the chief portions of the older masonry were executed by the Earls of Devon of this line, one of whom made the famous well, from which water is still raised as of old time by a donkey working in a wheel. The castle was strengthened at the time of the Armada, and it became the prison of Charles I. for some months shortly preceding his execution. In 1650 his younger children were sent hither, and here died the Princess Elizabeth, a monument to whom by Marochetti was placed by the Queen in Newport church. Carisbrooke was the official residence of the governor of the island, which has long been a titular office merely; and it has been for many years a ruin. There are, however, several government establishments, as at Parkhurst, and sundry forts connected with the defences of Portsmouth and Spithead. Before 1832 Wight returned six members to parliament, two for Newport, two for Yarmouth, and two for Newtown, the actual site of which had then no inhabitants. Yarmouth and Newtown were disfranchised, and a county member given to the Isle, which had previously ranked under Hampshire. Now it has no parliamentary borough, and one member for the island only; but it has become an administrative county under the County Councils Act, 1888. The population of the Isle of Wight has more than doubled in the past half century, and is steadily on the increase. In 1891 it was 78,718 as against 73,633 in 1881; and Ryde was the only town which showed a falling off, though it still remained the chief centre, having 10,952 inhabitants against 10,216 for Newport, the other municipal borough. Ryde was closely approached, however, by East and West Cowes, which lie on either side of the embouchure of the Medina, and may fairly be treated as one community, with a joint population of 10,648. Of the other towns Ventnor had a resident population of 5817, St Helens (district) of 4469, Sandown of 3592, and Shanklin of 3277. But these figures are largely increased in the tourist season.
See works by Worsley (1781), Englefield (1816), W. H. D. Adams (1856), Stone (1891), Shore (1892), and Cornish (Portfolio, 1895). For map, see PORTSMOUTH.