IX 



Bindon Hill 2 3 I 



at this latter point makes its way to the sea the 

 only one that pierces the range during its entire length 

 has here eaten away the chalky strata in the course 

 of ages ; and here too the fronting rampart has given 

 way to the sea, leaving only a few jagged rocks, well 

 loved of cormorants, to show where it once stood. 

 In came the remorseless tide, washing away the in- 

 tervening clay and sand, till it reached Bindon's 

 eastern flank, where sea and weather between them 

 at last exposed those magnificent white cliffs which 

 Mr. Fripp chose as the subject of his painting. At 

 his western end too the sea has found an entrance, 

 and, breaking through the rampart here again, has 

 wrought out a beautiful circular basin by the regular 

 wash of its tides ; here again, too, making raids on 

 Bindon's western end, where even now the traces are 

 plain of dangerous falls of chalk, one of which (so the 

 coastguardsman tells me) raised last winter a roar like 

 that of an avalanche. But in front of the whole length 

 of Bindon, from the cove to the eastern cliffs, the pro- 

 tecting rampart still stands firm ; the sea has found 

 no chance to eat away the clayey and sandy strata 

 which lie between this bulwark and the chalk ; and 

 it is here that they still form that tract of half- wild 

 land which Bindon may claim as his own territory, 

 enclosed as it is between his two precipitous ends, 

 his steep southern front and the sea. 



If this description has been at all comprehensible, 



