[Illustration:  ST. ALDHELM’S.]

The tale of wreck and disaster off this wild coast reached such a dreadful total that in 1881 after much agitation a light was erected on Anvil Point and declared open by Joseph Chamberlain, then President of the Board of Trade.  Between the two heads, which are about four miles apart, is the famous “Dancing Ledge,” a sloping beach of solid rock upon which the surf plays at high tide with a curious effect, possibly suggesting the quaint name.  This section of cliff, like the whole of the Dorset coast, is of great interest to the geologist and the veriest amateur must feel some curiosity on the subject when it is apparent to him that the beautiful scenery of this shore is caused mainly by its being the meeting place of so many differing strata.  The Kimmeridge clay will be noticed at once by its sombre colour, almost quite black when wet, and in times of scarcity actually used as fuel.  This clay rings Chapman’s Pool and extends westwards to Kimmeridge Bay.  St. Aldhelm’s Head is built up of differing kinds of limestone, the fine bastions of the top being composed of the famous Portland stone itself, the finest of all the limestones from a commercial point of view.

To walk from St. Aldhelm’s along the cliff to Anvil Point and so into Swanage is possible but fatiguing, and perhaps not worth the labour involved.  Winspit Quarry and Seacombe Cliff would be passed on the way; between the two are some old guns marking the spot where the East Indiaman Halsewell went down in a fearful storm in January, 1786.  This tragedy was immortalized by Charles Dickens in “The Long Voyage.”  Out of 250 souls only eighty-two were saved by men employed at Winspit Quarry.  Some of the passengers are buried in the level plot between the two cliffs.

Worth Matravers, a mile and a half from the Head and four from Swanage, is a village at the end of a by-way that leaves the Kingston road near Gallows Gore(!) cottages, a mile west of Langton Matravers.  The name of both these villages connects them with an old Norman family once of much importance in south-east Dorset.  It is said that one of them was the tool of Queen Isabella and the actual murderer of Edward.

Worth is famous for its fine early Norman church, also restored by the Earl of Eldon.  The tower, of three stories, the nave, south door and chancel arch, all belong to this period.  The chancel itself is Early English.  The carved grotesques under the eaves of the roof are worthy of notice.  Not the least remarkable thing about Worth is the tombstone of Benjamin Jesty, who is claimed thereon to be the first person to inoculate for smallpox (1774).  Langton Matravers need not keep the stranger; its church was rebuilt nearly fifty years ago and the village is unpicturesque.