BEACHY HEAD
ON thy stupendous summit, rock sublime !
That o'er the channel rear'd, half way at sea
The mariner at early morning hails,
I would recline; while Fancy should go forth,
And represent the strange and awful hour
Of vast concussion; when the Omnipotent
Stretch'd forth his arm, and rent the solid hills,
Bidding the impetuous main flood rush between
Page 2
The rifted shores, and from the continent
Eternally divided this green isle.
Imperial lord of the high southern coast !
From thy projecting head-land I would mark
Far in the east the shades of night disperse,
Melting and thinned, as from the dark blue wave
Emerging, brilliant rays of arrowy light
Dart from the horizon; when the glorious sun
Just lifts above it his resplendent orb.
Advances now, with feathery silver touched,
The rippling tide of flood; glisten the sands,
While, inmates of the chalky clefts that scar
Thy sides precipitous, with shrill harsh cry,
Their white wings glancing in the level beam,
The terns, and gulls, and tarrocks, seek their food,
And thy rough hollows echo to the voice
Page 3
Of the gray choughs, and ever restless daws,
With clamour, not unlike the chiding hounds,
While the lone shepherd, and his baying dog,
Drive to thy turfy crest his bleating flock.
The high meridian of the day is past,
And Ocean now, reflecting the calm Heaven,
Is of cerulean hue; and murmurs low
The tide of ebb, upon the level sands.
The sloop, her angular canvas shifting still,
Catches the light and variable airs
That but a little crisp the summer sea.
Dimpling its tranquil surface.
Afar off,
And just emerging from the arch immense
Page 4
Where seem to part the elements, a fleet
Of fishing vessels stretch their lesser sails;
While more remote, and like a dubious spot
Just hanging in the horizon, laden deep,
The ship of commerce richly freighted, makes
Her slower progress, on her distant voyage,
Bound to the orient climates, where the sun
Matures the spice within its odorous shell,
And, rivalling the gray worm's filmy toil,
Bursts from its pod the vegetable down;
Which in long turban'd wreaths, from torrid heat
Defends the brows of Asia's countless casts.
There the Earth hides within her glowing breast
The beamy adamant, and the round pearl
Enchased in rugged covering; which the slave,
With perilous and breathless toil, tears off
Page 5
From the rough sea-rock, deep beneath the waves.
These are the toys of Nature; and her sport
Of little estimate in Reason's eye:
And they who reason, with abhorrence see
Man, for such gaudes and baubles, violate
The sacred freedom of his fellow man--
Erroneous estimate ! As Heaven's pure air,
Fresh as it blows on this aërial height,
Or sound of seas upon the stony strand,
Or inland, the gay harmony of birds,
And winds that wander in the leafy woods;
Are to the unadulterate taste more worth
Than the elaborate harmony, brought out
From fretted stop, or modulated airs
Of vocal science.--So the brightest gems,
Glancing resplendent on the regal crown,
Page 6
Or trembling in the high born beauty's ear,
Are poor and paltry, to the lovely light
Of the fair star, that as the day declines,
Attendant on her queen, the crescent moon,
Bathes her bright tresses in the eastern wave.
For now the sun is verging to the sea,
And as he westward sinks, the floating clouds
Suspended, move upon the evening gale,
And gathering round his orb, as if to shade
The insufferable brightness, they resign
Their gauzy whiteness; and more warm'd, assume
All hues of purple. There, transparent gold
Mingles with ruby tints, and sapphire gleams,
And colours, such as Nature through her works
Shews only in the ethereal canopy.
Thither aspiring Fancy fondly soars,
Page 7
Wandering sublime thro' visionary vales,
Where bright pavilions rise, and trophies, fann'd
By airs celestial; and adorn'd with wreaths
Of flowers that bloom amid elysian bowers.
Now bright, and brighter still the colours glow,
Till half the lustrous orb within the flood
Seems to retire: the flood reflecting still
Its splendor, and in mimic glory drest;
Till the last ray shot upward, fires the clouds
With blazing crimson; then in paler light,
Long lines of tenderer radiance, lingering yield
To partial darkness; and on the opposing side
The early moon distinctly rising, throws
Her pearly brilliance on the trembling tide.
Page 8
The fishermen, who at set seasons pass
Many a league off at sea their toiling night,
Now hail their comrades, from their daily task
Returning; and make ready for their own,
With the night tide commencing:--The night tide
Bears a dark vessel on, whose hull and sails
Mark her a coaster from the north. Her keel
Now ploughs the sand; and sidelong now she leans,
While with loud clamours her athletic crew
Unload her; and resounds the busy hum
Along the wave-worn rocks. Yet more remote,
Where the rough cliff hangs beetling o'er its base,
All breathes repose; the water's rippling sound
Scarce heard; but now and then the sea-snipe's cry
Just tells that something living is abroad;
And sometimes crossing on the moonbright line,
Page 9
Glimmers the skiff, faintly discern'd awhile,
Then lost in shadow.
Advancing higher still
The prospect widens, and the village church
But little, o'er the lowly roofs around
Page 22
Rears its gray belfry, and its simple vane;
Those lowly roofs of thatch are half conceal'd
By the rude arms of trees, lovely in spring,
When on each bough, the rosy-tinctur'd bloom
Sits thick, and promises autumnal plenty.
For even those orchards round the Norman farms,
Which, as their owners mark the promis'd fruit,
Console them for the vineyards of the south,
Surpass not these.
Where woods of ash, and beech,
And partial copses, fringe the green hill foot,
The upland shepherd rears his modest home,
There wanders by, a little nameless stream
That from the hill wells forth, bright now and clear,
Or after rain with chalky mixture gray,
Page 23
But still refreshing in its shallow course,
The cottage garden; most for use design'd,
Yet not of beauty destitute. The vine
Mantles the little casement; yet the briar
Drops fragrant dew among the July flowers;
And pansies rayed, and freak'd and mottled pinks
Grow among balm, and rosemary and rue:
There honeysuckles flaunt, and roses blow
Almost uncultured: Some with dark green leaves
Contrast their flowers of pure unsullied white;
Others, like velvet robes of regal state
Of richest crimson, while in thorny moss
Enshrined and cradled, the most lovely, wear
The hues of youthful beauty's glowing cheek.--
With fond regret I recollect e'en now
In Spring and Summer, what delight I felt
Page 24
Among these cottage gardens, and how much
Such artless nosegays, knotted with a rush
By village housewife or her ruddy maid,
Were welcome to me; soon and simply pleas'd.
An early worshipper at Nature's shrine;
I loved her rudest scenes--warrens, and heaths,
And yellow commons, and birch-shaded hollows,
And hedge rows, bordering unfrequented lanes
Bowered with wild roses, and the clasping woodbine
Where purple tassels of the tangling vetch
With bittersweet, and bryony inweave,
And the dew fills the silver bindweed's cups--
I loved to trace the brooks whose humid banks
Nourish the harebell, and the freckled pagil;
And stroll among o'ershadowing woods of beech,
Page 25
Lending in Summer, from the heats of noon
A whispering shade; while haply there reclines
Some pensive lover of uncultur'd flowers,
Who, from the tumps with bright green mosses clad,
Plucks the wood sorrel, with its light thin leaves,
Heart-shaped, and triply folded; and its root
Creeping like beaded coral; or who there
Gathers, the copse's pride, anémones,
With rays like golden studs on ivory laid
Most delicate: but touch'd with purple clouds,
Fit crown for April's fair but changeful brow.
Ah ! hills so early loved ! in fancy still
I breathe your pure keen air; and still behold
Those widely spreading views, mocking alike
The Poet and the Painter's utmost art.
Page 26
And still, observing objects more minute,
Wondering remark the strange and foreign forms
Of sea-shells; with the pale calcareous soil
Mingled, and seeming of resembling substance.
Tho' surely the blue Ocean "from the heights
Where the downs westward trend, but dimly seen"
Here never roll'd its surge. Does Nature then
Mimic, in wanton mood, fantastic shapes
Of bivalves, and inwreathed volutes, that cling
To the dark sea-rock of the wat'ry world ?
Or did this range of chalky mountains, once
Form a vast bason, where the Ocean waves
Swell'd fathomless ? What time these fossil shells,
Buoy'd on their native element, were thrown
Among the imbedding calx: when the huge hill
Its giant bulk heaved, and in strange ferment
Page 27
Grew up a guardian barrier, 'twixt the sea
And the green level of the sylvan weald.
Ah ! very vain is Science' proudest boast,
And but a little light its flame yet lends
To its most ardent votaries; since from whence
These fossil forms are seen, is but conjecture,
Food for vague theories, or vain dispute,
While to his daily task the peasant goes,
Unheeding such inquiry; with no care
But that the kindly change of sun and shower,
Fit for his toil the earth he cultivates.
As little recks the herdsman of the hill,
Who on some turfy knoll, idly reclined,
Watches his wether flock; that deep beneath
Rest the remains of men, of whom is left
Page 28
No traces in the records of mankind,
Save what these half obliterated mounds
And half fill'd trenches doubtfully impart
To some lone antiquary; who on times remote,
Since which two thousand years have roll'd away,
Loves to contemplate. He perhaps may trace,
Or fancy he can trace, the oblong square
Where the mail'd legions, under Claudius, rear'd,
The rampire, or excavated fossé delved;
What time the huge unwieldy Elephant
Auxiliary reluctant, hither led,
From Afric's forest glooms and tawny sands,
First felt the Northern blast, and his vast frame
Sunk useless; whence in after ages found,
The wondering hinds, on those enormous bones
Gaz'd; and in giants dwelling on the hills
Believed and marvell'd--
Page 29
Hither, Ambition, come !
Come and behold the nothingness of all
For which you carry thro' the oppressed Earth,
War, and its train of horrors--see where tread
The innumerous hoofs of flocks above the works
By which the warrior sought to register
His glory, and immortalize his name--
The pirate Dane, who from his circular camp
Bore in destructive robbery, fire and sword
Down thro' the vale, sleeps unremember'd here;
And here, beneath the green sward, rests alike
The savage native, who his acorn meal
Shar'd with the herds, that ranged the pathless woods;
And the centurion, who on these wide hills
Encamping, planted the Imperial Eagle.
All, with the lapse of Time, have passed away,
Page 30
Even as the clouds, with dark and dragon shapes,
Or like vast promontories crown'd with towers,
Cast their broad shadows on the downs: then sail
Far to the northward, and their transient gloom
Is soon forgotten.
But from thoughts like these,
By human crimes suggested, let us turn
To where a more attractive study courts
The wanderer of the hills; while shepherd girls
Will from among the fescue bring him flowers,
Of wonderous mockery; some resembling bees
In velvet vest, intent on their sweet toil,
While others mimic flies, that lightly sport
In the green shade, or float along the pool,
But here seem perch'd upon the slender stalk,
Page 31
And gathering honey dew. While in the breeze
That wafts the thistle's plumed seed along,
Blue bells wave tremulous. The mountain thyme
Purples the hassock of the heaving mole,
And the short turf is gay with tormentil,
And bird's foot trefoil, and the lesser tribes
Of hawkweed; spangling it with fringed stars.--
Near where a richer tract of cultur'd land
Slopes to the south; and burnished by the sun,
Bend in the gale of August, floods of corn;
The guardian of the flock, with watchful care,
Repels by voice and dog the encroaching sheep--
While his boy visits every wired trap
That scars the turf; and from the pit-falls takes
The timid migrants, who from distant wilds,
Warrens, and stone quarries, are destined thus
Page 32
To lose their short existence. But unsought
By Luxury yet, the Shepherd still protects
The social bird, who from his native haunts
Of willowy current, or the rushy pool,
Follows the fleecy croud, and flirts and skims,
In fellowship among them.
NOTES.
BEACHY HEAD.
Page 1. Line 3. "The mariner at early morning hails."
In crossing the Channel from the coast of France, Beachy-Head is the
first land made.
Page 1. Line 6. "Of vast concussion, when the Omnipotent "Stretch'd forth his arm ----"
Alluding to an idea that this Island was once joined to the continent
of Europe, and torn from it by some
convulsion of Nature. I confess I never could trace the resemblance
between the two countries. Yet the cliffs
about Dieppe, resemble the chalk cliffs on the Southern coast.
But Normandy has no likeness whatever to the
part of England opposite to it.
Page 2. Line 15.
Terns.--Sterna hirundo, or Sea Swallow.
Gulls.--Larus canus.
Tarrocks.--Larus tridactylus.
Page 3. Line 1.
Gray Choughs.--Corvus Graculus, Cornish Choughs, or, as these birds
are called by the Sussex people,
Saddle-backed Crows, build in great numbers on this coast.
Page 4. Line 10. "Bursts from its pod the vegetable down."
Cotton. "Gossypium herbaceum."
Line 14. "The beamy adamant."
Diamonds, the hardest and most valuable of precious stones.
For the extraordinary exertions of the Indians in diving for the pearl
oysters, see the account of the Pearl
Fisheries in Percival's View of Ceylon.
Page 8. Line 14. "----But now and then the Sea Snipe's cry,"&c.
In crossing the channel this bird is heard at night, uttering a short
cry, and flitting along near the surface of the
waves. The sailors call it the Sea Snipe; but I can find no species
of sea bird of which this is the vulgar name. A bird also called
inhabits the lake of Geneva.
Page 22. Line 3. "By the rude arms of trees, lovely in spring."
Every cottage in this country has its orchard; and I imagine that not
even those of Herefordshire, or
Worcestershire, exhibit a more beautiful prospect, when the trees are
in bloom, and the "Primavera candida e
vermiglia," is every where so enchanting.
Page 24. Line 10. "Where purple tassels of the tangling
vetch--"
Vetch.--Vicia sylvatica.
Line 11. "With bittersweet, and bryony inweave."
Bittersweet--Solanum dulcamara.
Bryony.--Bryonia alba.
Line 12. "And the dew fills the silver bindweed's cups--"
Bindweed.--Convolvulus sepium.
Line 14. "Nourish the harebell, and the freckled pagil."
Harebell.--Hyacinthus non scriptus.
Pagil.---Primula veris.
Page 25. Line 5. "Plucks the wood sorrel--"
Oxalis acetosella.
Line 8. "Gathers, the copse's pride, anémones."
Anemóne nemorosa.--It appears to be settled on late and excellent
authorities, that this word should not be
accented on the second syllable, but on the penultima. I have
however ventured the more known accentuation,
as more generally used, and suiting better the nature of my verse.
Page 26. Line 3. "Of sea-shells; with the pale calcareous
soil
Mingled, and seeming of resembling substance."
Among the crumbling chalk I have often found shells, some quite in a fossil state and hardly distinguishable from chalk. Others appeared more recent; cockles, muscles, and periwinkles, I well remember, were among the number; and some whose names I do not know. A great number were like those of small land snails. It is now many years since I made these observations. The appearance of sea-shells so far from the sea excited my surprise, though I then knew nothing of natural history. I have never read any of the late theories of the earth, nor was I ever satisfied with the attempts to explain many of the phenomena which call forth conjecture in those books I happened to have had access to on this subject.
Page 26. Line 11. "Or did this range of chalky mountains,"&c.
The theory here slightly hinted at, is taken from an idea started by
Mr. White.
Page 27. Last line. "Rest the remains of men, of whom is
left--"
These Downs are not only marked with traces of encampments, which from
their forms are called Roman or
Danish; but there are numerous tumuli among them. Some
of which having been opened a few years ago,
were supposed by a learned antiquary to contain the remains of the
original natives of the country.
Page 28. Line 8 "Where the mail'd legions, under Claudius,"&c.
That the legions of Claudius were in this part of Britain appears certain.
Since this emperor received the submission of Cantii, Atrebates, Irenobates,
and Regni, in which latter denomination were included
the people of Sussex.
Page 28. "What time
the huge unwieldy elephant
Auxiliary reluctant,
hither led--"
In the year 1740, some workmen digging in the park at Burton in Sussex,
discovered, nine feet below the
surface, the teeth and bones of an elephant; two of the former were
seven feet eight inches in length. There
were besides these, tusks, one of which broke in removing it, a grinder
not at all decayed, and a part of the
jaw-bone, with bones of the knee and thigh, and several others.
Some of them remained very lately at Burthon
House, the seat of John Biddulph, Esq. Others were in possession
of the Rev. Dr. Langrish, minister of Petworth at that period, who was
present, when some of these bones were taken up, and gave it as his opinion,
that they had remained there since the universal deluge. The Romans
under the Emperor Claudius probably brought elephants into Britain.
Milton, in the Second Book of his History, in speaking of the expedition,
says that "He like a great eastern king, with armed elephants, marched
through Gallia." This is given on the authority of Dion Cassius,
in his Life of the Emperor Claudius. It has therefore been conjectured,
that the bones found at Burton might have been those of one of these elephants,
who perished there soon after its landing; or dying on the high downs,
one of which, called Duneton Hill, rises immediately above Burton Park,
the bones might have been washed down by the torrents of rain, and
buried deep in the soil. They were not found together, but scattered
at some distance from each other. The two tusks were twenty feet
apart. I had often heard of the elephant's bones at Burton, but never saw
them; and I have no books to refer to. I think I saw, in what is
now called the National Museum at Paris, the very large bones of an elephant,
which were found in North America: though it is certain that this enormous
animal is never seen in its natural state, but in the countries under the
torrid zone of the old world. I have, since making this note, been
told that the bones of the rhinoceros and hippopotamus have been found
in America.
Page 28. Line 16. "-- and in giants dwelling on the hills --"
The peasants believe that the large bones sometimes found belonged to giants,
who formerly lived on the
hills. The devil also has a great deal to do with the remarkable
forms of hill and vale: the Devil's Punch Bowl, the
Devil's Leaps, and the Devil's Dyke, are names given to deep hollows,
or high and abrupt ridges, in this and the
neighbouring county.
Page 29. Line 8. "The pirate Dane, who from his circular camp--"
The incursions of the Danes were for many ages the scourge of this island.
Line 12. "The savage native, who his acorn meal--"
The Aborigines of this country lived in woods, unsheltered but by trees and caves; and were probably as truly savage as any of those who are now termed so.
Page 30. Line 10. "Will from among the fescue bring him
flowers--"
The grass called Sheep's Fescue, "Festuca ovina," clothes these Downs
with the softest turf.
"-------------- some resembling bees
In velvet vest intent on their sweet toil--"
Ophrys apifera, Bee Ophrys, or Orchis, found plentifully on the hills,
as well as the next.
Line 13. "While others mimic flies, that lightly sport--"
Ophrys muscifera.--Fly Orchis. Linnæus, misled by the variations
to which some of this tribe are really subject,
has perhaps too rashly esteemed all those which resemble insects,
as forming only one species, which he terms Ophrys insectifera. See
English Botany.
Page 31. Line 3. "Blue bells wave tremulous.--"
"Campanula rotundifolia."
"-------------- The mountain thyme
Purples the hassock of the heaving mole."
Thymus serpyllum. "It is a common notion, that the flesh
of sheep which feed upon aromatic plants, particularly
wild thyme, is superior in flavour to other mutton. The truth
is, that sheep do not crop these aromatic plants,
unless now and then by accident, or when they are first turned on hungry
to downs, heaths, or commons; but the
soil and situations favourable to aromatic plants, produce a short
sweet pasturage, best adapted to feeding sheep, whom nature designed for
mountains, and not for turnip grounds and rich meadows. The
attachment of bees to this, and other aromatic plants, is well known."----Martyn's
Miller.
Line 5. "And the short turf is gay with tormentil."
Tormentilla reptans.
"And bird's foot trefoil, and the lesser tribes
Of hawkweed; spangling it with fringed stars.--"
Bird's foot trefoil.--Trifolium ornithopoides.
Hawkweed.--Hieracium, many sorts.
Line 11. "The guardian of the flock, with watchful care,--"
The downs, especially to the south, where they are less abrupt, are
in many places under the plough; and the
attention of the shepherds is there particularly required to keep the
flocks from trespassing.
Page 31. Line 13. "While his boy visits every wired trap--"
Square holes cut in the turf, into which a wire noose is fixed, to catch
Wheatears. Mr. White says, that these
birds "Motacilla oenanthe" are never taken beyond the river Adur, and
Beding Hill; but this is certainly a
mistake.
Line 15. "The timid migrants, who from distant wilds,--"
These birds are extremely fearful, and on the slightest appearance
of a cloud, run for shelter to the first rut, or heap of stones, that they
see.