LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume VII, Issue 742, 4 November 1876, Page 3

LITERATURE.

A MYSTERY OP THE CLIFFS. ma account of it. • Well, there is a way down to it, .sir. 0, dear, yes; we often go and sit there in hot weather; its a niee breezy place, don't yon know 1 But unless you're pretty steady in the head, it wouldn't be exactly safe for you to try and get there. It's a mere ledge of a path over-hanging the Sheerdown Cliff; we thinks nothin' of it, but gentlemen from London and the like aren't altogether used to such places.' ' And is there no other way down ?' ' No, sir; there's a reg'lar wall of cliff above and below and at the end, and when you get to the end you are bound to come back over your own footsteps. No, sir; short of being a bird, there's only one way of getting to "Booby's Nook," as we call it.' * Ah, I to try and have a look at the place close, notwithstanding. Will you show me the way? I'm not much of a climber, but I think my head will stand that. I have come down here to be quiet; it would be a good place to sit and read in. I should think, and one would not be much disturbed.' ' 0, dear, no ; no one won't bother you there, sir. I'll show you the way willingly.' The coastguardsman turned, and began to descend the smooth springy billow of turf which terminated apparently with the edge of the cliff. Before I follow him, it will be as well for me here to say that the part of the dialogue which I have just set down, sounds the key-note of the marvel of my life—the one element in it which has shaped my destiny, and given me cau.se to acknowledge, beyond all men living porhaps, that there are indeed more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy. Asked to tell my tale, that it may be added to the numerous well-authenticated records of the ' strange yet true,' I dash into it at once, pointing out, as I have hinted, that it begins with some talk that I am having with a coastguardsman. He is on duty by the verge of a tall headland, far away upon our northern shores. I have wandered up there from a neighbouring fishing village, whither I have come, a? any other ordinary overworked lawyer might have come, to stay for a little seaside quiet and relaxation during the Long Vacation.

With the most prosaic surroundings from my cradle to this thirtieth year of my life, I suddenly find myself plunged into the midst of an astounding romance—l, mind you, one of the most matter-of-fact commonplace fellows in the world, and one whose very occupation, as well as his natural disposition, leads him to take a hard, dry, and ultrarationalistic view of everything. Yes, truly, in the beginning, it would have been impossible to rind an educated man of ordinary capacity less capable of having his imagination worked upon, or less susceptible to the influence of the marvellous or the supernatural, than myself. This is all changed now, and the dawn of my conversion dates from the moment when that good natured blue-jacket led me down to ' Booby's Nook.' It was a queer place, described accurately by the man's few simple words. I need only add that from above it looked like a ledge or huge tuft of grassy earth and rock, jutting out from the smooth grey surface of the cliff, at the extreme point of the promontory, and say about twenty feet below the summit. It had attracted my attention from the first, and I had an odd fancy to get to it, and followed the man with some little sense of excitement, an unusual feeling with me, stimulated, I suppose, by the fine air and freedom of the downs.

As we approached by the descent of the slippery turf, I began to find that it was an awkward place, as well as a queer, and as the faint indications of the path which we followed narrowed to a mere plank's width, where it actually came to the cliffs's face, I did not like it. Sheer up for twenty feet on the left, sheer down for sixty or thereabouts on the right, with the ' murmering surge ' chafing on the ' unnumbered idle pebbles' beneath. After a dozen steps the path widened again a little, and a ridge of turf for a foot or two on the seaward side made a faint imitation of a parapet, the entrance as it were to the ledge proper. Here a scat had been scooped out of the face of the cliff, and art and nature thus combined to make an easy arm chair and footstool. 'Sit yc there, sir,' says the coastguardsman, stopping, and turning round, for I was following him very cautiously, and not much relishing the dizzy look things had from that height. ' Sit ye there, sir, and cock fyour legs up on that bit of turf in the front of ye, it's the oonifortablest armchair we've got hereabouts, indoor or out.' I obeyed, and found the man's words true; it really was a charming place to sit in. He walked on to the extreme end of this excrescence, which was larger than I had thought it from above, and though I am no geologist, it was, I apprehend, formed by the edge of a protruding stratum of marly earth or clay, running horizontally through the rocky formation of the cliff. There were several lower tiers at intervals of the samelooking stuff, but none of these projected ; for the very good reason that there were not, as in the upper one, jutting crags or natural supports to hold them up. The man playfully patted the wall like barrier, which abruptly rose round ' Booby's Nook ' on all sides, save towards the sea, and along the little path we had traversed. Then he turned, and sat down on another natural chair at the farthest end from me, twenty feet off, saying—- ' There, sir ; you see there's the only way for a man without wings to get to this 'ere little private box; we've got it all to ourselves: and what's more, so long as you keeps your feet up on your footstool there, nobody can't intrude upon us ! ' ' True again,' I said to myself ; ' I shall come and sit here often ; in fact, I shall stay here now. Quite safe ?' I asked aloud ; ' no chance of a landslip ?' ' Humph, no ; not at this season,' is the answer. ' After heavy rain in the winter, and when there has been a frost, and then a thaw, don't you know, maybe bits of it go, maybe all of it will some day ; but we never thinks of those things much; besides, nobody comes down here, 'cept in summer.' A delightful spot to dream in; but) then, I was not a dreamer. Nevertheless, sitting there, with the soft gray blue of autumn above and below, a calm sweet-scented air brushing one's check, the rippling wavelets plashing tenderly far down at one's feet, and an evening light gently blending all objects into a warm harmonious haze, I lapsed into a placid speculative phase of mind—the nearest approach to a day-dream I had ever experienced. I took a book from my pocket, read a page without realising a word, and from dreaming fell to sleeping. ' Beg your pardon, sir ; but would you just move your legs a minute, and let me pass ? I must go up to the look-out again now—sorry to disturb you.' ' 0, ah, yes ; I see you can't get by.' f To be continued.']