Abbey when they were passing through Shaftesbury. The vast size of
Poole Harbour is realized when we consider that, excluding the islands,
its extent is ten thousand acres, and from no other spot does the sheet
of water look more imposing than from the wooded heights and sandy
shores of Brownsea. At low tide several channels can be traced by the
darker hue of the water as it winds between the oozy mud-banks, but at
high tide the whole surface is flooded, and there lies the great salt
lake with her green islands set like emerald gems on a silver targe.

Eastwards from Bournemouth Pier the cliffs are bold and lofty, and are
broken only by small chines or narrow gullies. On the summit of the
cliff a delightful drive has been constructed, while an undercliff
drive, extending for a mile and a half between Bournemouth Pier and
Boscombe Pier, was formally opened with great festivities on 3rd June,
1914. Boscombe Chine, the only large opening on the eastern side of
Bournemouth, must have been formerly rich in minerals, and Camden, who
calls it "Bascombe", tells us that it had a "copperas house". On the
eastern side of the Chine a spring has been enclosed, the water being
similar to the natural mineral water of Harrogate. The whole of the
Chine has been laid out as a pleasure garden, although care has been
taken to preserve much of its natural wildness. Unlike most of the other
chines along this stretch of shore, the landward termination of
Boscombe Chine is very abrupt, which is the more remarkable as the
little stream by which it is watered occupies only a very slight
depression beyond the Christchurch road on its way down to the sea from
Littledown Heath. Boscombe House stood formerly in the midst of a fine
wood of Scotch pines. The estate is now being rapidly developed for
residential purposes. The house was the home for many years of
descendants of the poet Shelley, who erected a monument in Christchurch
Priory to the memory of their illustrious ancestor. The house lies
between the Christchurch road and the sea, and was almost entirely
rebuilt by Sir Percy Shelley about the middle of the nineteenth century.
The rapid growth of Boscombe may be gauged by the fact that between
thirty and forty years ago Boscombe House and a few primitive cottages
were the only buildings between Bournemouth and Pokesdown. Like her
parent of Bournemouth, whom she closely resembles, Boscombe is built on
what was once a stretch of sandy heaths an