LUNDY  , an

English island at the entrance of the Bristol Channel, 12 M . N.W. by N. of the nearest point on the mainland, namely Hartland Point on the Devonshire coast . The nearest ports are Clovelly and Bideford . The extreme length of the island is 3 M. from N. to S., the mean breadth about half a mile, but at the south the breadth is nearly 1 m . The area is about 1150 acres . The component rock is a hard granite, except at the south, where slate occurs . This granite was used in the construction of the Victoria Embankment, London . An extreme elevation of about 450 ft. is found in the southern half of the island; the northern sloping gently to the sea, but the greater part of the coast is cliff-bound and very beautiful . The landing, at the south-east, is sheltered by the small Rat Island, where the once common black rat survives . There are a few prehistoric remains on Lundy, and the foundations of an ancient chapel of St Helen . There are also ruins, and the still inhabited keep, of Marisco Castle, occupying a strong precipitous site on the south-east, held in the reign of Henry II. by Sir Jordan de Marisco . The Mariscos, in their inaccessible retreat, lived lawlessly until in 1242 Sir William Marisco was hanged for instigating an attempt on the life of Henry III .

In 1625 the island was reported to be captured by

Turkish pirates, and in 1633 by Spaniards . Later it became an object of attack and a hiding place for French privateers . The island, which is reckoned as extra-parochial, has some cultivable land and heath pasture, and had a population in 1901 of 94 .