perfectly ignorant of its whereabouts, and a quarter of an hour's walk from the pier, I have been instrumental in sending them which is perhaps one of the reasons why to see what they may be more reasonably so few excursionists seem to know any. proud of than anything in or about their thing about the place, and those few who town; namely, the magnificent and won- have seen it, have no idea of its value as derful piece of ancient workmanship an antiquity, apart from its extreme known as the Shell Grotto. To begin beauty. My expectations were at first with, this name is a mistake. The whole somewhat disappointed when, following management of the place is a mistake. the way indicated "To the Grotto," it led When a man meets you at the corner of me to an unpretending little house, with the pier and puts a badly printed fly-leaf flowers in the front garden, and a bill in in your hand with the words "Go and see the window which said, "Tea provided." the Grotto upon it, you naturally believe" Perhaps," thought I, "it is only a catchthat it is an advertisement of a place built penny, after all," and I looked suspiout of oyster-shells, where you can have ciously at a hanging board on which was tea and shrimps ad libitum, and you imprinted, "Visitors to the Grotto are re mediately set yourself against such allure-quested to ring the bell." ments, preferring to be in the fresh salt I hesitated a moment, but finally rang, air, and roam at your pleasure by the sea. It was the merest chance in the world that persuaded me to see this "Grotto." I was crumpling the fly-leaf advertisement in my hand, about to throw it away, when some words in small print caught my eye. They were, "Two thousand square feet of shell-work." This aroused my curiosity, for I thought that two thousand square feet even of oyster-shells would be worth looking at. So I turned to the man who had given me the advertisement, and said, "Where is this grotto?"

He was a pale, hungry-looking individual, and had a monotonous way of speaking, which probably arose out of a long and bitter experience of trying to persuade people to 'go and see the Grotto" who wouldn't go.

66

"Up on the Dane," he replied. "Where is the Dane?"

Right through the town. You can't miss it." And he turned a filmy eye upon me with a show of interest. "Are going to see it?"

you

"Yes, I think so. Is it something you have built up there?"

The man broke into a hoarse laugh. "I built it! Lor' bless yer 'art, it's been there no one knows how long! You'd be a clever one if you could tell who built it. I don't know nothink about it, no more don't any one else that I ever heerd on."

I was now fairly interested in the mat ter, and lost no time in walking to the "Dane." My way lay right through the town, in and out some very dirty streets, smelling strongly of fish and tar, and then up a slight eminence. This eminence was the Dane, called so for reasons that must be left for antiquarians to decide, and the third turning to the left was marked "To the Grotto." It was quite

and prepared myself for some carefully constructed piece of humbug. The door was opened by a cheery-looking woman, to whom I said, "Can I see the Grotto?" Certainly," she replied. 'If you will go down those three little steps to the right, my daughter will bring you a light and show you the way."

66

"Is it underground?" I asked with some surprise.

"Oh yes;" she said, smiling affably, "quite underground."

And then she disappeared, shutting her door. She evidently had no intention of proposing a shrimp tea, so I descended the steps indicated and found a closed door, which, however, was speedily opened by a fresh-faced, intelligent-looking girl, who invited me in and then proceeded to light a wax taper. The little room in which I found myself was a kind of shop, where views of Margate, shells, baskets, and other trifles were on sale; among other things, photographs of the "Grotto" I had come to see. I examined one of these with increasing wonder. really like this?" I exclaimed. possible!"

66

"Is it

"Not

Oh, it is much better than that,” said the girl, smiling. "You see, it is difficult to take a good photograph of the place, as it is so dark. If you will come this way, please, I will light the gas as we go."

And, with lighted taper in hand, she went down a flight of rough stone steps,

following her, and in a minute we were in the subterranean temple, miscalled a grotto, and which, as my guide lit the gas all along it, proved to be one of the most beautiful, fantastic, and interesting relics of the ancient days that exists in England or anywhere else. I had expected noth ing like it. I had no idea there was such a place to be seen anywhere, least of all

On further inquiry, I heard that Frank Buckland, the naturalist, had paid many visits to the cave, purposing to write a book about it, had not untimely death put an end to his useful labors. His theory was, that all the shells used in the ornamentation of the place, must have been taken alive that is, with fish in them, or they could not have remained in the wonderful state of preservation in which they now are. This is, however, a difficult question, which only profound conchologists can determine.

in Margate, and I was fairly bewildered | great many people who have seen it have
at the fine architecture and artistic pro- said it ought to be written about in the pa-
portions of the beautiful temple in which pers, but no one has taken any particular
I stood. It is spaciously and mathematic- notice of it yet."
ally planned; a long winding passage,
with exquisitely designed archways here
and there, leads to the culminating point,
a square room with the fragments of an
altar at each end. An enormous column,
as thick and as handsomely rounded as
the centre column in Roslin Chapel, sup-
ports the roof, but the wonder of it all,
apart from its architectural construction,
is that the walls, the centre column, and
the altars, are covered with shell panels,
designed by the brain and worked by the
hand of man, every panel different in de-
sign, and all beautifully executed. Here
a sunflower, with leaves and buds, all ex-
quisitely worked out in shells of different
form and size, covers one panel; next to
it, a rising sun surrounded with triangles,
stars and crescents one particularly |
beautiful panel has upon it a full-blown
rose with leaves, thorns and buds, all per-
fect. Two hearts, one within the other,
a sword or dagger half drawn from its hilt,
a star-fish, rings entwined, and all sorts of
emblematical signs form centres for these
wonderful shell panels, each panel having
a different and more or less elaborate bor-
der. The great centre column is a per-
fect marvel of shell-work, some portions
of it being as finely worked as Florentine
mosaic. The shells used are the usual
ones found on the seashore, and are
bedded in common clay. Utterly unpre-
pared as I was for such a marvel of art
and beauty, I said to my guide,

"What is the history of this wonderful place? Does any one know anything

about it?"

"Very little is known," said the girl. "It was first discovered in 1834. The foundations for a school were being laid just above here, and one of the workmen let his spade fall. To his surprise it dropped through a hole and disappeared. A small boy was then let down through the hole to look after the spade, and when he got to the bottom he found himself just close to the centre column of the Grotto. Afterwards the entrance was found, and cleared of stones and rubbish, so that people could walk through. The piece of land on which it is, has always been private property, and the lady to whom it now belongs allows us to live here for a small rental and make what we can by showing the Grotto, as long as we take good care of it. She had the gas laid on all through the place as it is now. A

The square room at the end of the beau tiful vaulted passage, looks as if intended. for a place of worship, though the Christian emblem of the cross is nowhere to be seen. The walls here are richly embla zoned with designs in shells of the sun; the sun rising, setting, and in the full splendor of all his rays; these rays exquisitely worked in the minutest shells, some of· them so small that one needs a microscope to judge the amount of patience, thought, and skill bestowed on their arrangement. On some of the panels in this room too are worked urns or vases of primitive shape, from which flames are depicted ascending. Tapping the middle panel at the end of this chamber, I found that it sounded hollow. I suggested to my guide that it might be well to make some excavations there; she agreed, but averred that the present owner of the property would never allow it. Wandering slowly back through the beautiful vaulted passages, I noticed at the top of one of the arches the small figure of a man in a sitting posture, carved out of one stone; the arms are tightly folded, the head is gone, but judging from the position of the body, the head had evidently turned downwards so that the chin rested on the breast. Full of curiosity and surprise, I turned back once more to look at the whole effect of this almost unrecognized memento of the past, and noticed how marvellously the designs harmonized together, the different colors and shapes of the shells blending so that from the foot of the steps that led into it, as far as eye could see, it looked like a miniature chapel ornamented with the finest mosaic work. It is difficult to guess for what purpose it could have been built. It is certainly not a Christian temple; nor is it Druidical, as the Druids never wor shipped underground, but on hills and in forests. It is more likely to be a relic of

Scandinavian mythology - it is sugges-gests the idea that perhaps when the

tive of the sea, and may have been a burial place of the vikings, though it is generally believed that these bold riders of the waves preferred to let their lifeless bodies drift out to sea in ships and sink in the "cold, populous graves "of the ocean they loved so well, rather than be laid in the damp and wormy earth. Whatever it be, the Shell Grotto at Margate deserves a better name and a wider fame, and so it will prove, when antiquarians and scholars shall have given it proper consideration, and have freed it from its present common surroundings. Sixpence, for seeing so beautiful and extraordinary a place, seems an absurdly small sum, considering what "guides," as a rule, charge for showing sights not half so interesting; yet that humble silver coin is the only key required to unlock the wonders of a palace almost as beautiful as one of the scenes in Hans Christian Andersen's "Little Mermaid."

Before leaving, I asked the gentle and obliging damsel of the Grotto, if many people visited the place.

64

Sometimes, a great many," she replied, "but they just scramble through and never ask any questions. I don't suppose they stop to think whether it is an old relic or a modern building. Some of the roughs try to pick the shells out and destroy the panels; we have to watch very carefully to prevent mischief being done."

All

The

Danish hordes ravaged the coast in the time of the ancient Britons, the place may have been used for secret worship of some kind. It was evidently not a mere hidingplace, it was not a dungeon, for the lavish ornamentation of the walls and the spaciousness of the building would, in such a case, have been quite unnecessary. At any rate, it affords a field for students of early art and architecture, and I shall be glad if my description of the place induces those who are learned in the land to visit it and give public voice to their ideas respecting its origin. It is as wonderful in its way as Fingal's Cave, or the Blue Grotto at Capri, both of which magnifi cent natural structures are celebrated throughout the world; while the Shell Grotto, badly named, and badly adver tised, and moreover having the disadvan tage of being at over-popular Margate, remains temporarily in obscurity. mention of it has been lately omitted from the Margate guidebook. I hear that it was once alluded to there, en passant, in two or three lines, but in the new editions even that allusion has dropped out. place should be called the Shell Tomb of the Vikings, the Norseman's Cave, the Scandinavian Shell Temple, any tak ing, descriptive title anything but the Grotto; for, say what we will, a Margate Grotto cannot be divided from the idea of shrimps, yea, even horrible sugges tions are presented of periwinkles and She showed me one place where the pins! Everybody of taste and refinement ruthless fingers of some particularly de- will and must avoid a Margate Grotto, structive 'Arry had broken away the cen- even if they know nothing of it but its tre petals of a rose, and I was able to name. If John Ruskin, the enthusiastic discern more closely than ever the ex- worshipper of the mosaics of St. Mark's quisite beauty and fineness of the work. Cathedral, would but take a trip to MarIt would be absurd indeed to imagine such gate, and give the world his opinion on the a place to be modern, for who, in these design and art-work of this subterranean busy days, would bestow so much time, temple, I am sure he would tell us that we labor, and patience on the building and are a very dense and stupid people to be ornamentation of a subterranean chapel so indifferent to one of the rarest antiquiwith shells? At a rough calculation, I ties we possess. Perhaps the distinshould say that it would take a man anguished art critic might himself give the entire day, working hard every hour, to place a new and fitting name, thus raising make one square foot of this shell-work, | it with honor from the half-suspicious disand there are two thousand square feet of it altogether. The trouble of collecting the shells, sorting and arranging them, the infinite patience, skill, and delicacy of finger required to bed them in the clay, apart from the knowledge of art exhibited in the plan of each design on the panels, all this taken into consideration, heightens the interest, and increases the value of this Grotto as a splendid example of early artistic effort. The name of the hill in which it was excavated, the Dane, sug

trust and incredulity in which it is now
held, and making it famous in the eyes of
the public by giving us the clue to its
origin, and proving, as far as proof can
go, that these shining, shell-embroidered
walls and arched roofs had once resounded
to the shouts of the strong sea warriors
whom no terrors of wind or wave could
daunt, and who swore by, and sometimes
defied in the plenitude of their muscular
vigor and prowess, the great gods Odin
and Thor.
MARIE CORELLI.

For EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage.

Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office money-order, if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter. All postmasters are obliged to register letters when requested to do so. Drafts, checks and money-orders should be made payable to the order of LITTELL & Co.

Single Numbers of THE LIVING AGE, 18 cents.