SHAKSPEARE S CLIFF. 31 



an immense landslip from this cliff, by which Dover was shaken 

 as if by an earthquake, and a still greater one in 1772. 



Thus the fame of the poet is likely to outlive for many 

 centuries the proud rock, the memory of which will always 

 be entwined with his immortal verse : — 



" How fearful, 

 And dizzy 'tis to cast one's eyes so low ! 

 The crows, and choughs, that wing the midway air, 

 Show scarce so gross as beetles : half way down 

 Hangs one that gathers samphire ; dreadful trade ! 

 Methinks, he seems no bigger than his head. 

 The fishermen, that walk upon the beach, 

 Appear like mice ; and yon tall anchoring bark, 

 Diminish'd to her cock ; her cock, a buoy 

 Almost too small for sight. The murmuring surge, 

 That on th' unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes, 

 Cannot be heard so high." 



The peninsulas of Purbeck and Portland, the cliffs of Devon- 

 shire and Cornwall, the coasts of Pembroke and Cardigan, the 

 stormy Hebrides, Shetland and Orcadia, all tell similar tales of 

 destruction, a mere summary of which would swell into a 

 volume. 



During the most violent gales the bottom of the sea is said 

 by different authors to be disturbed to a depth of 300, 350, or 

 even 500 feet, and Sir Henry de la Beche remarks that when 

 the depth is fifteen fathoms, the water is very evidently dis- 

 coloured by the action of the waves on the mud and sand of 

 the bottom. But in the deep caves of ocean all is tranquil, all 

 is still, and the most dreadful hurricanes that rage over the 

 surface leave those mysterious recesses undisturbed. 



