BE ACHY HEAD. 231 



are represented (among- other things) the ships of William the Conqueror. The old vessel had 

 been, used as the last resting-place of a great Viking. It was their custom so to bury their 

 chiefs. The ship was usually placed with its stem towards the sea, so that when Odin, the Jove 

 of the northern mythology, should call the gallant chief, he could set sail straight off land for 

 Valhalla, the heaven of his hopes. 



Newhaven, a little farther to the east, has a fair tidal harbour and some local com- 

 merce, but its chief feature is the very rapidly-increasing passenger traffic between it and 

 Dieppe, for Paris or London, and the traveller who has not tried that route can be recom- 

 mended to do so. The boats, some of them of steel and containing all modern improve- 

 ments, are among the finest in the Channel service, making the tiip to Dieppe usually in 

 five or five-and-a-half hours. The trip through Normandy and the valley of the Seine is 

 varied and interesting, and preferable to that from Calais or Boulogne. Near Newhaven 

 is the once flourishing town of Seaford, though it is now little better than a picturesque 

 fishing-village, in the bay of which mackerel are sometimes taken in prodigious quantities, 

 and which affords shelter and anchorage for large vessels during the prevalence of strong 

 easterly winds. 



Still farther east, and at the extreme southern point of Sussex, stands the bold pro- 

 montory Beachy Head, the scene of many a shipwreck in days gone by. It would be a 

 most difficult feat to scale this great chalk cliff; and yet the slope of broken debns f 

 mingled with scanty grass and samphire, steep though it be, does not look impracticable, 

 nor indeed is it up to a certain point. The writer and his brother once managed to get 

 within a very respectable distance of the top, but then the rocky stones commenced rolling 

 down, bringing both climbers with them. After many an ineffectual attempt to secure a 

 hold by clinging to the samphire, and intervals of momentary rest, neither was very 

 sorry to reach the stony beach, albeit considerably bruised, battered, and torn. There 

 they found the sea had cut off their retreat towards Eastbourne, and before they could 

 reach the shore they had to wade through the fast-rising tide round one or two projecting 

 corners of the cliff. 



In the month of November, 1821, a dreadful storm visited Beachy Head, during 

 which a French vessel was driven ashore and wrecked. All on board were swept into the 

 sea, and only four escaped the general destruction, by climbing to the top of a heap of 

 rocks which had fallen, at different times, from the overhanging cliffs. Their perilous 

 situation can easily be conceived; the tide was encroaching upon them step by step, and 

 it was certain destruction to attempt to gain the land. The night was extremely dark, 

 and the thunder and lightning rendered it still more awful. The poor men, finding that 

 they would either be swallowed up by the rising tide or dashed to pieces against the rocks, 

 determined to deliver themselves up to the mercy of the waves, with the forlorn hope of 

 being- cast on some place of safety. At this time one of the men saw, during some flashes 

 of lightning, a plant growing amongst the stones on which they stood, which he knew was 

 samphire, and which he also happened to know never grew where it could be entirely 

 covered with water. He at once acquainted his fellow- sufferers Avith this fact, and per- 

 suaded them to remain where they were till morning, being convinced that the 

 height of the tide would not be quite equal to that of the place on which they stood. The 



