healths, and other acts of jollity, whenever he had been at his government from the first hour of his entering upon it.' Philip, Earl of Pembroke, was appointed by the Parliament Governor of the Island. The King, after the Earl of Portland had been removed from the Island to his place of imprisonment, appointed Colonel Jeremy Brett Captain of Carisbrooke Castle. Colonel Brett, a kinsman of the Duke of Buckingham, commanded a regiment in the fruitless Northern Expedition of 1639. On his return his men mutinied at Durham and threatened his life. About 1636-37 Brett had married Frances, daughter of Sir Henry Neville and widow of Sir Richard Worsley, the first baronet, who died in 1621. This lady, who in the first years of her widowhood had been attached to Sir Charles Bartlett, upon whose marriage she wrote some touching verses recorded by Sir John Oglander, died in 1659. While Brett was in command of Carisbrooke Castle, the courageous Countess of Portland, though her husband was a prisoner, determined to hold the fort for the King to the last, and remained within its walls with her five children and her husband's brother and sister. Moses Read, the Mayor of Newport, represented to the Parliament that the town, which by this time had taken its side against the King, could not be considered safe so long as the Countess of Portland and Colonel Brett were in possession of Carisbrooke Castle. The Parliament in consequence of the Mayor's representations directed the captains of the ships in the river and the Roads of Cowes to assist Read in any measures he should think necessary for the security of the Island. The Mayor accordingly marched the train-band of the town with four hundred sailors from the ships against the Castle, where Brett had not above twenty men, many well-wishers to the royal cause being deterred by the menaces of the populace. Harby, the minister and lecturer of Newport, a man under peculiar obligations to the Earl of Portland, distinguished himself in stirring up the besiegers against the lady and her children, assigning for reason her being a Papist,' and exhorting them in the fashion adopted by the Puritan clergy to be valiant as they were fighting the Lord's battle. No precautions seem to have been taken by the small garrison, as the Castle was only victualled with three days' provisions. The high-spirited Countess of Portland showed no less courage than a contemporary heroine of the Cavalier party, the well-known Countess of Derby, who in 1544 defended Lathom House against the parliamentary forces from February till May, when it was relieved by Prince Rupert. But the Countess of Portland did not meet with like success in her resistance to Moses Read and Harby. The odds against her were fearful, but she did what she could, and advancing to the platform with a match in her hand she declared that she would fire the first gun herself unless honourable ternis were granted. After some negotiations the articles of capitulation were agreed on, and the Castle surrendered. The terms to which the besiegers assented were, that Colonel Brett and the gentlemen with him and their servants who composed the slender garrison should be allowed the freedom of the Island, but were restricted from going to Portsmouth, then held for the King by Goring. The Countess was to be permitted to have lodgings in Carisbrooke Castle until the contrary should be ordered by the Parliament. An order arrived soon afterwards prescribing her removal from the Island within two days after notice given her, and she was then indebted to the humanity of the sailors for the vessel which conveyed her and her family. See Worsley (Hist. I. W. pp. 115, 116), who quotes Oglander's manuscript Memoirs as his authority. Jerome Weston, second Earl of Portland, just lived to see the restoration of the monarchy, as he died March 16, 1662. He was succeeded in his title by his only son, Charles Weston, and had four daughters, all of whom entered into religious orders in France. In March, 1665, when war was declared by England against the Dutch, Charles Weston, third Earl of Portland, with others of the young courtiers joined as a volunteer the fleet commanded by the Duke of York, assisted by Prince Rupert and the Earl of Sandwich. The fleet put out to sea in April, and blockaded the Dutch ports. It was at length driven off by bad weather, when the Dutch put to sea and were defeated with great loss off Solebay (near Lowestoft on the coast of Norfolk), June 3, and pursued to their own shores. The loss of life on the part of the young English volunteers was considerable. On the Admiral's ship were killed the Earls of Portsmouth and Falmouth, Lord Muskerry, Mr. Boyle, son of the Earl of Burlington, and others of less note. The Earl of Marlborough (who commanded the old James) was also killed, and Sir John Lawson, an admiral under the Commonwealth, was mortally wounded. As this Earl of Portland died unmarried, the title came to his uncle, Thomas Weston, who married Anne, daughter of John Lord Butler of Bramfield and widow of Mountjoy Blount, first Earl of Newport and natural son of Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy and Earl of Devonshire. The fourth Earl of Portland dying without issue the title became extinct, to be revived in the person of William Bentinck, first page of honour and subsequently confidential adviser to William Prince of Orange, who accompanied his royal master to England, where he had command of the Dutch regiment of Horse Guards. In April, 1689, he was created a peer of England by the title of Baron Cirencester, Viscount Woodstock, and Earl of Portland. His eldest son, Henry, second Earl of Portland, was created Marquis of Titchfield and Duke of Portland in July, 1716, a title which has been borne by the Bentincks ever since. July 19, 1890. LOCOMOTION, POSTAL SERVICE, AND WHO made our roads? Engineers were at work upon them long years before they were taken in hand by the Highway Commissioners. The Romans, those born rulers of men and civilizers, were our first and for a long interval of time our best road-makers. A Roman road was a work of art. Their engineers were very particular in securing a firm bottom. If this could not be attained through the swampy nature of the ground, a foundation was formed by driving piles. On this basis was a course consisting of stones not smaller than the hand could grasp; above that was a mass of broken stones, and fragments of brick, cemented with lime (what masons call rubble-work) and rammed down hard. On this carefully prepared foundation was laid a pavement of large stones, fitted and jointed with the greatest nicety, as free from gaps and irregularities as if the whole had been one solid mass. Even if accidentally the water penetrated from above, the lower part was perfectly waterproof. It is well known that roads are mainly injured by water. There were in England four of these great roads, corresponding to our main Trunk railway lines; and modern research has traced others besides these four 'streets' as they are called from the Latin strata,' paved ways. Another Latin word, 'calceata,' a made road, was adopted into several modern languages, becoming chaussée' in French, and in our own language 'causey,' which by a false analogy has been corrected into 'causeway' (Guest, Orig. Celt. vol. i. p. 349). The Isle of Wight had, we know, its three Roman 'villas' of Carisbrooke, Brading, and Gurnard, with probably many more of which no trace has been left. Roads must have been constructed by the Roman conquerors for the purposes of intercourse between these country houses of the wealthier folk, though as yet no remains of any Roman street, fosse, or causey have been laid bare in the Isle of Wight, so far as I am aware. After the age of the Romans road-making was very imperfectly practised in the Isle of Wight, as elsewhere in England. Our highways were mere paths or tracks from one place to another. The scanty information that we have of the condition of the roads in early times only proves that they were very bad. Some were lanes over the natural soil, as for instance, Love Lane, between Carisbrooke and Gatcombe some paved roads for pack-horses. The first indication of any improvement is found in the passing of the general statute for the repair of the highways (2 & 3 Phil. and Mary, c. 8). This act directs that two surveyors of the highways shall be annually elected in every parish, and that the parishioners shall attend four days in every year for their repair with wains, carts, oxen, horses, or other cattle, and all other necessaries, and also able men with the same, according to the quantity of land occupied by each; householders, cottagers, and others not having land, if they be not hired labourers, by themselves or sufficient substitutes giving their personal work or travail. Upon this statute were founded all the Highway Acts that were subsequently passed before the introduction of tolls or turnpikes in 1663 (15 Charles II). Of these there were six in all passed in the reign of Mary, and about nineteen in that of Elizabeth. The faithful and honest painter of the manners of his own Tudor times-Harrison-whose Description of England is prefixed to Holinshed, says that the statute was constantly evaded by the covetousness of the rich and the laziness of the poor, that parish surveyors took good care to have good roads to their own fields but neglected those that led from market to market; and that encroachments were daily made upon the highways by covetous landowners, so that whereas some streets within these five and twenty years have been in most places fifty feet broad according to the law, whereby the traveller might either escape the thief or shift the mire, or pass by the loaden cart without danger to himself or his horse; now they are brought into twelve or twenty or sixand-twenty at the most.' It may be hoped that the Isle of Wight was free from this local jobbing in the highways. At any rate, as Canon Venables (Guide, pp. 357, 358) observes, 'The Isle of Wight has long been famed for the excellence of its roads. Abounding in materials of the best quality, and possessing good natural drainage, both from the general nature of the soil and the configuration of its surface, the roads are readily constructed and easily maintained in good condition. In 1808, before the establishment of turnpike rates, Vancouver writes (Agricultural Survey of Hampshire, p. 392), 'The convenience of travelling through this highlyfavoured spot is not to be surpassed by any part of Britain, owing to the goodness and abundance of materials and the attention of the resident gentry and respectable tenants, by the enforcement of the regular, timely, and judicious performance of statute labour, procuring most suitable materials |