Adventure and adventurers > Black's guide to Dorsetshire

12
FROM POOLE TO LYME REGIS.
Routt 1.
from the shore, indicates the nature of its rocky bottom; the
remains, no doubt, of land which has been overwhelmed by the
ocean.” On its summit rises the gray and time-worn walls of St.
Aldhelm’s Chapel or Chantry—a small building of stone,
stoutly buttressed; the roof resting upon a central column which
throws out four intersecting arches ; the doorway Early Norman.
Here, in the old times, a monk lit his nightly lamp as a warning
beacon, and chanted masses for the safety of mariners who were
driven near the fatal shore. They, in their turn, were expected
to leave at the first port they arrived at a gratuity towards his
support. The chantry is now occupied by the coast-guard, who
render, with their lines and rockets, more effectual aid than the
old priest with his lamp and masses. St. Aldhelm was the first
bishop of Sherborne, and died, in the odour of sanctity, a.d. 709.
Bede characterises him “as a man of great erudition, both in
ecclesiastical matters and the liberal sciences.”*
Still, “ bending and bowing o’er the billowy swells,” our bark
sails onward; passing the pleasant creek of Chapman’s Pool,
and the ridge of Emmett’s Hill, an elevation of the Portland
sands, capped with Portland stone, about 280 feet in height.
The slopes trend seaward with great rapidity, covered with huge
masses of broken stone, and channelled by many a silently-
working stream, which, in due course, will effect a further desola¬
tion. Westward stretch the, wooded vales of Encombe (Lord
Eldon), opening out upon the stately mansion which, for many
years, was the residence of the great Tory Chancellor. One of
the numerous sheep-walks which cover the higher ground is
called, from its fertility and peculiar shape, the Golden Bowl,
and brightens with a crystal stream which, after widening into
a pleasant lake, rolls down over crag and stone to the sea.
Swyre Head, with its helmet-shaped summit, next rises to
the view, overlooking the leafy vales of Encombe and the pic¬
turesque grounds of Smedmore (Colonel Hansel). The hills now
recede from the shore, and cut off from the mainland the rich
plains of Kimmeridge, whose strata, composed of bituminous
shales and laminated clays, produce the Kimmeridge Coal. This
peculiar deposit yields a clear but disagreeably odorous flame,
and throws out considerable heat. A company at Wareham is
engaged in its distillation, and produce asphaltum, a manure,
* His works form the first vol. of the “ Patres Ecclesiee Anglicanse,”
published in 1842.