“A rude steep stair, chopped in the rock, leads down still lower to a little cove and a narrow strip of beach at the foot of the cliffs. It is the landing-place for the lighthouse-keepers when they go fishing; but can only be used in calm weather.
“The assistant-keeper spoke of the arrival of a visitor as a pleasure in the monotonous life of the establishment. Winter, he said, was a dreary time, not so much on account of cold, as of storms, fogs, and wild weather generally. In easterly gales the fury of the wind would be often such that to walk across the yard was impossible; they had to crawl under shelter of the wall, and the spray flew from one side of the Point to the other. But indoors there was no lack of comfort, for the house was solidly built and conveniently fitted, and the Trinity Board kept a small collection of books circulating from lighthouse to lighthouse.”
There are two lighthouses at Portland Bill; the lantern of one 136, and that of the other 210 feet above the sea. Between the chalk cliffs and a bank called the Shambles, foams the wild impetuous current of the Race of Portland.
The celebrated chalky range of the South Downs terminates on the Sussex coast in Beachy Head, an abrupt precipitous promontory, 575 feet above the sea-level. On a point considerably lower than this lofty headland, and projecting much further into the sea, stands the celebrated Belle Tout Lighthouse, erected in 1831.
