TH COVE, DORSETSHIRE

=How to get there.=--By rail from Waterloo Station. South-Western
Railway.
=Nearest Station.=--Wool, 5 miles. (Corfe Castle, Wareham, and
Swanage are very convenient, though the drive is a little longer.)
=Distance from London.=--126 miles.
=Average Time.=--Varies between 3-1/2 to 5-1/4 hours.

1st 2nd 3rd
=Fares.=--Single 21s. 0d. 13s. 2d. 10s. 6d.
Return 36s. 9d. 23s. 0d. 21s. 0d.

=Accommodation Obtainable.=--"Cove Hotel," West Lulworth.
"Banke's Arms Hotel" at Corfe Castle.
=Alternative Route.=--_Via_ Bournemouth. Train direct from Waterloo.
Steamers run once a week or oftener during the summer months
(weather permitting) to Swanage and Lulworth Cove.

The remarkable cove at West Lulworth consists of a completely circular
basin, hollowed out of the bold cliffs of the southern coast-line of
Purbeck Island. It is of sufficient depth to allow small ships of from
sixty to eighty tons to enter. The narrow opening to the cove is between
two bluffs of Portland stone, forming a portion of what was the barrier
to the sea in former times. Once, however, did the waves eat through the
Portland stone in this place, it was easy work to gradually batter down
and wash out, through the narrow opening, a circular bay from the soft
strata of Hastings sands lying in the protection of the Portland stone.
On the west side of the cove one may notice rocks with such peculiarly
contorted strata as those shown in the foreground of the illustration
opposite.

A most interesting and rugged portion of the coast lies to the west of
Lulworth Cove. After leaving the coastguard signal station one reaches
Stair Hole, a cavity walled off from the sea by Portland limestone. At
high tide, however, the sea enters the chasm through a number of small
apertures, and is probably carving out at this spot a circular basin
after the manner of Lulworth Cove. Passing Dungy Head and Oswald or
Horsewall Bay, with its towering chalk cliffs, one reaches a low
promontory known as Tongue Beach. It is formed of layers of limestone
tilted into curved or perpendicular positions. Crossing this promontory
one enters Durdle Bay, with the Barndoor, an archway 30 feet high, in a
massive cliff.

At East Lulworth, a little way inland from the cove, stands Lulworth
Castle, an imposing-looking building with circular towers at each
corner. It was built about three hundred years ago on the s