The White Shield · Rock Sublime: The Sussex Coast in the British Imagination

The white cliffs which form along the Sussex coast — most notably the ‘Seven Sisters’ — possess an inexorable connection to national identity and national defence. It would be impossible for them not to, given the visual parallelism between white cliffs and walls. This goes especially so for an island nation, and one where those very cliffs are some of the first seen features when travelling to or from its main historical threat of invasion — France (and to a lesser extent the Netherlands). Unlike those of Dover, however, the white cliffs of Sussex have their association with national identity and the defence of the nation attached not to patriotic fervour, but instead has them tempered by a blending with the Romantic, sublime nature of the landscape, creating a sense of ambiguity. Their historical attachments (Norman conquest, naval battles in the Age of Sail, the French Revolutionary Wars) are considerably more historical, distant and therefore quaint in a way which is less true for Spitfires battling Nazi Messerschmitts over those of Dover.

While overall this poem of Noyes is fairly bombastic – putting the ‘national’ in the ‘national identity’ being tied to the landscape — we nevertheless see a clear illustration of the distinction between the white cliffs of Sussex and those of Dover, and the more ambiguous position occupied by the former. While both constitute England’s “White Shield,” the Sussex cliffs are tied to the Romantic, “crowned with thyme and violet where the Sussex wheatears fly.” Those of Dover, in contrast, are “white as the white ensign,” less tied to the landscape and instead tied to the nation itself.

Like Noyes reference to the Armada, here Smith recounts the various attempts at invasion which Beachy Head has seen — successful Normans, and Norsemen, Italians, and Spaniards all thrown back, their failure a warning for the French not to dare and try again. Even here, however, this is subordinated to the land: Contemplation recalls the military history from “high on her throne of rock,” and when finished returns to the land, “how gladly the reflecting mind returns / To simple scenes of peace and industry, / Where, bosom’d in some valley of the hills / Stands the lone farm…”

The Battle of Beachy Head in 1690 was a major French naval victory over the British and Dutch fleets, just off the coast from the headland. However, the French were unable to exploit the victory, and the British fleet was allowed to regroup. This steel engraving print depicts a scene of the combat itself, showing the kind of defence imagined near the cliffs of Sussex, in contrast to the more modern and less historically Romantic images tied to those of Dover.