CREWKHORNE CAVERN. 397 



these characters are more than ordinarily prominent. 

 The beach stretching away from the Tunnels on either 

 hand, but especially that to the westward, is a scene 

 which every lover of the picturesque cannot but ad- 

 mire. The Tunnels themselves, pierced through the 

 solid rock, at an enormous expense of labour and 

 money, to give access to the beach, are an object of 

 curiosity, and the visitor, as he traverses these long 

 sepulchral corridors, finds in their chilliness and dark- 

 ness a not inappropriate prelude to the wild solitude 

 of the shore below. 



In one place the excavation of the tunnel has 

 broken into the roof of Crewkhorne cavern, and the 

 visitor, as he walks across a bridge of logs, passes 

 over a gloomy den, which tradition affirms, perhaps 

 without much foundation, to have afforded a tempo- 

 rary shelter to De Tracy, when first he sought a refuge 

 after the assassination of Becket. Overwhelming in- 

 deed must be the terror which would impel a man to 

 hide himself in such a place as this ; for though it is 

 a lofty cave, with an ample mouth, the interior is 

 frightfully desolate ; the sea closes the entrance at 

 every tide, and at springs must wash up almost, if not 

 quite, to the very extremity. 



The Ladies' Bathing Pool, a lake partly natural 

 partly artificial, and the beaches and coves where 

 gentlemen enjoy the same luxury, are just before and 

 around this cavern, and these spots are during the 

 summer generally frequented by visitors. But I prefer 

 to wander on towards the westward, beneath the pre- 

 cipitous Torrs, clambering over the huge angular 

 spurs that jut out here and there from the base of the 



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