Cheicton Glen. 



A little way along the main road lies Somerford, once one 

 of the Granges of Christchurch Priory. Its barns and stables 

 are partly built from the prior's lodgings, whose site may here 

 and there be faintly traced ; and the chapel, which in Grose's 

 time was still standing, with the initials of the last prior, John 

 Draper, cut on the window labels.* 



The best plan, however, is not to go along the road, but the 

 shore as far as Chewton Glen, and there climb up the cliff. The 

 sands are white and hard, strewed with fragments of iron-stone, 

 and large septaria, from which cement is made, and for which, 

 farther on, a fleet of sloops is dredging a little way from the 

 shore. In the far distance gleam the white and black and orange - 

 coloured bands of sand and clay scoring the Barton cliffs. f 



The glen, or " bunny," as it is locally called, runs right 

 down into the sea ; the high tide rushing up it, and driving back 

 its Forest stream. Down to the very edge it is fringed with 

 low oak copses, covered in the spring, as far as high-tide mark, 



Of Hurst, bound westward to the gloomy bower 

 Where Charles was prisoned in yon island tower. 



* sic * * * 



Here, witched from summer sea and softer reign, 

 Foscolo courted Muse of milder strain. 

 On these ribbed sands was Coleridge pleased to pace 

 Whilst ebbing seas have hummed a rolling base 

 To his rapt talk." 



* Antiquities, vol. ii., where there is a sketch of the Grange as it was 

 in 1777. 



f For the geology of High Cliff, Barton, and Hordle Cliifs, see 

 chapter xx. There are not many fossils in either the grey sand or the 

 green clay before you reach the "bunny." Plenty, however, may be found 

 in the top part of the bed immediately above, known as the " High Cliff 

 Beds," and which rise from the shore about a quarter of a mile to the 

 east of the stream. 



U 2 147 



