2 PORTLAND BREAKWATER. 



for the justice of the comparison, but certainly this 

 is a glorious prospect. It is a lovely morning; the 

 sun has not long been up, but his effulgence fills the 

 sky with splendour immediately in front, a splendour 

 which trails along the intervening sea, as if it were 

 the fiery monarch's train.* Away on the left stretch 

 the bold promontories and abrupt cliffs of Purbeck, 

 twenty miles of purple coast, gradually lessening in 

 apparent height and in distinctness of outline, until 

 the bluff precipice that terminates the line, St. Aid- 

 helm's Head, is lost in the brightness of the eastern 

 horizon. Then the broad expanse of boundless sea 

 brings the eye to Portland on the right, a lofty rounded 

 mass, thrown out into strong light by the opposite 

 sunbeams, and to that noble work the Breakwater, as 

 noble in design and object, as marvellous in execution, 

 which perpetually creeps out into the domain of the 

 sea, presenting an effectual though scarcely visible 

 wall to the waves, until by and by it shall stretch 

 halfway across our present field of view, and inclose 

 a safe harbour of refuge, on which many a mariner 

 will bestow his grateful blessing. At such a time 

 as this sweet April morning, indeed, a work like this 

 may seem of little value, when the waves of the ocean 

 only just sufiice to break its face into gems of chang- 

 ing brilliance, and to make whispering music; while 

 vessels of all sizes, like those whose clustering masts 

 we see yonder under the promontory, ride with perfect 

 security in the open road. But in the fierce gales of 



*" Where like an Angel's train 



The burnish'd water blaz'd." (Keble.) 



