This remarkable and apparently natural fortification, is generally believed to be an artificial structure, and to have been the work of the Danes during the period in which that warlike people made frequent descents upon the eastern coast of England.

Now, all is silent; they who stood

And gazed upon these waves,
Have slept, and moulder'd many a year

Within their unknown graves ;
A few proud names are left to teli

Of valour pass'd away,
And these hoar battlements record

The labours of their day.

And many flowers have sprung since then,

To greet the summer breeze;
And these old woods have seen the fall

Of many stately trees;
But still the forest-turf is dim

With shade of leaf and bough ;
The saplings of that elder time,

Are hoary oak trees now.

And the wild birds are singing sweet

From early morn to eve,
In each green bower, where blooming buds

Their radiant garlands weave;
And martial music now no more

From rock to rock is heard ;
No bright spears flash, by no fierce dart

The gentle air is stirr'd.

But thou, oh! Ocean old and hoar !

Still thunderest on the sand, Thy waves, so fetterless, roll on,

Along the lonely strand;
Time and decay have wrought strange change

On nations proud and free;
And thou-thou only art the same,

Thou ever-sounding sea!