Mystery
The sleeper on the tower
He woke, he warned, and the boat went down.
See it clearly
- What's there
- Lone church tower on a beach
- Legend from
- Elder's Tales (1839)
- Tone
- Eerie
A little old man asleep on a church tower, and the painters who never got home.
Only the tower survives of St Helens Old Church, on the shore near Bembridge harbour. The sea broke into the churchyard around 1720, and the seaward side of the tower was painted white as a mark for sailors. Abraham Elder's 1839 Tales tells of a little old gentleman who was found asleep on top of the tower. He warned that the workmen from Portsmouth who came to whitewash it would drown, and they did. Wikipedia adds that the tower is said to be Nelson's last sight of England.