33° Beoivulf and JVidsith 



(360), etc.^ Even Red Cliff (285), though not so high as the 

 Shakespeare Cliff, is called by Phillips 'one of the grandest preci- 

 pices on the Yorkshire coast.'- In one respect, however, the cliffs 

 at Flamborough Head surpass most of those mentioned, in that 

 they, like the Shakespeare Cliff, are composed of white chalk. 

 About the boldness and beauty of the' promontory itself there 

 seems to ])e no difference of opinion among cultivated observers, 

 and this in spite of the fact that it is 100 feet lower than that at 

 Dover. One speaks of 'the grand chalk cliffs of Flamborough 

 Head' ; another describes it as 'a great and noble headland' ; while 

 still another, approaching it from the south, says: 'At length the 

 whole cliff is chalk from base to summit, and the great promon- 

 tory, of snowy whiteness, gleams afar in the sunlight along the 

 shores and across the sea.'^ Not unlike is this, it will be observed, 

 to the 'gleaming cliffs, broad ocean-headlands' of Bcozv. 222-3.* 

 Dean Inge somewhere says : 'There are, after all, few emotions of 

 which one has less reason .to be ashamed than the little lump in 

 the throat which the Englishman feels when he first catches sight 

 of the white cliffs of Dover.' May not a patriotic Northumbrian, 

 approaching his shores, have experienced a similar emotion in 

 catching sight of the white cliffs of Flamborough?' 



But other correspondences remain to be noted. It may excite 

 surprise that (229 ff.) the guard who had been set to watch the 

 coast saw Beowulf and his companions from the cliff,^ and 

 immediately hurried down to them (cf. 1892, 1914 ff.). It would 

 appear from this that the landing was made at the foot of the 



' Cf. Murray, p. xlv; White, p. 127. 



'P. 116. 



'' Murray, p. xliv ; Norway, p. 148, cf . p. 83 ; Wliite, p. 64. Homer also 

 has a white rock, though mythical (Od. 24. 11) : 



Passing the Ocean stream and the White Rock's glittering portal. 

 With the Homeric 'ocean-streams' (//. 3. 5, etc.) cf. Bcow. 297, 513, 577, 

 iQio, and see hclow, p. 340. One may note in passing that it was off Flam- 

 Ijorough Head that John Paul Jones, in the Bonhomme Richard, captured 

 the Serapis on Sept. 23, 1779. 



■* Cf . Chambers, Bcot\.'ulf, 1921, p. loi : 'It is hardly possible to conceive 

 a greater contrast than that between the Roskildc fjord and tlie scenery 

 depicted in II. 1357, etc., 1408, etc.'; similarly Clark Hall, Bcotvulf, p. xxiii. 



'Cf. the watch on the coast in Queen Elizabeth's time (Norway, p. 85), 

 and the coast-guards of tiie present day (White, p. 72). 



