nearest

Ratonneau and Pomègue are the nearest islands of all those that surround the Château d’If, but Ratonneau and Pomègue are inhabited, as is also the islet of Daume.

“In the melon bed, on the end nearest the wall, where the sun strikes nearly all day.

The end nearest the wall, you said?”

It is the centre for a considerable area of country, since Tunbridge Wells, the nearest place of importance, is ten or twelve miles to the eastward, over the borders of Kent.