On a cold, but sunny winter afternoon I walked along the coast from Broadstairs to Ramsgate. As the tide was out, I walked along the sandy beach by the cliffs at Dumpton Gap. In the bright sunlight the lower part of the beach, nearer to the sea, reflected white through the rocks and seaweed. The white of crumbled and sea washed chalk from the cliffs. The sea was a Turneresque blue green and was a flat calm stretching out into the curve of the horizon.
According to the amateur geologist Cecil
Carus-Wilson, who specialised in the acoustic qualities of rocks, the sands
around Dumpton Gap are musical. A rare
phenomena that only occurs in a few places around the world. Seemingly if you strike the sand, it makes a
musical note. I tried this but it just
went ‘thud’. I must have been doing
something wrong.
As I walked along, I passed many little sea
worn caves in the cliffs and then came across one large enough to wander
into.
I wondered if it could be the same cave
that Samuel Taylor Coleridge had found on one of his many visits to
Ramsgate. A cave he had used to strip
off in before having a ‘glorious tumble in the waves.’ Looking out from the cave I could almost
imagine a naked, opium addled Coleridge lolloping around as he headed down to
the sea.
This area was also notorious for being a
landing site for a gang of local smugglers and this is something Coleridge referenced
in his poem ‘The Delinquent Travellers’ -
Methinks, along my native shore,
Dismounting from my steed I'll stray
Beneath the cliffs of Dumpton Bay,
Where, Ramsgate and Broadstairs between,
Rude caves and grated doors are seen:
And here I'll watch till break of day,
(For Fancy in her magic might
Can turn broad noon to starless night!)
When lo! methinks a sudden band
Of smock-clad smugglers round me stand.
Denials, oaths, in vain I try,
At once they gag me for a spy,
And stow me in the boat hard by…
If you are worried as to the fate of the
hero of this poem then take comfort in the fact that he is allowed to disembark
from the boat when it arrives at Boulogne, and he then heads off to Australia.
Inside the cave the chalk walls were pitted
and green with seaweed slime. There was
a pungent smell of the ocean as if the sea had scented the very rocks with its
salt.
I left the Skulferatu that had
accompanied me on my walk in a gap in the chalk wall of the cave.
The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu
are –
Latitude 51.347914
Longitude 1.438490
I used the following sources for information on Dumpton Bay
Ramsgate Recorder,
Winter 2021-2022
The Isle of Thanet News,
Thanet History with Martin Charlton: Coleridge and Ramsgate, October 26, 2021
Field Excursion and
Science Lecture
The Thanet Advertiser,
June 13, 1903
