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SEAFORD 267 |
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the tower at Norman's Bay the central column was in the spring of 1911 taken down, leaving the vault to rest with perfect security on the surrounding wall.
During the early part of the nineteenth century an honoured resident of Seaford was the hospitable and genial doctor, Charles Verral. The death of a daughter caused him to write a poem that originally appeared in the Brighton Herald, a paper that well maintains its literary traditions. Most of us probably will be able to agree with Charles Fleet (Glimpses of our Ancestors in Sussex) that the lines "are amongst the most touching and beautiful that a poet has ever penned in the bitterness of a death-grief."
"We've lain her in the cold churchyard, Beneath a mound of clay; Lov'd as she was, we've left her there, To loathsome worms a prey.
And lo! the mist is on the hill,
The rain is driving fast, The evening skies are wild and dark
And chilly blows the blast.
And now this roof—for many a year,
In many a storm so wild— This humble roof has been a home,
A shelter for my child.
And now this roof, her father's roof,
Can be her home no more— How shall I close mine house to-night?
How bear to bar my door?
To shut her out for whom so oft
It gladly opened wide ! To shut her out that was so long
My joy, my hope, my pride ! |
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