Here barren, there patches of vedure and the thin smoke threading its way from a cluster of trees, denotes where the village hamlet lay embosomed from the storms of the south west gales, close at the foot and under the shelter of lofty chalk range which abuts abruptly on the sea, and before which stands a high, de-tached pyramidical rock, rising out of the waters like a sheeted spectre, and known to mariners under the suspicious name of Old Harry.
(A coasting scrap. James Silvester)
Beneath Ballard, on the shore, is the Old Harry rocks. A lofty pillar-like rock, separated by a narrow channel from the mainland. Here it was, as the legend is told, that a ship foundered, bearing a complete peal of bells for Poole church, owing to the sailors having jested profanely at their sacred cargo. On stormy nights the bells are supposed to ring a warning to all approaching this dangerous spot.
(Swanage, Isle of Purbeck. Edited by John Braye 1891)
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