Scott also published poetry; among his work a pretty little poem based on the church yard at Sidestrand called ‘Garden of Sleep’, of which this is the final verse:
I wait for the living, alone with the dead!
For a tower in ruins stands guard o'er the deep,
At whose feet are green graves of dear women asleep!
Did they love as I love, when they lived by the sea?
Did they wait as I wait, for the days that may be?
Was it hope or fulfilling that entered each breast,
Ere death gave release, and the poppies gave rest?
O! life of my life! on the cliffs by the sea,
By the graves in the grass, I am waiting for thee!
Sleep! Sleep!
In the Dews of the Deep!
Sleep, my Poppy-Land,
Sleep!
A major event in January 1994 saw some twenty metres of cliff lost with the resultant spoil spread out across the beach. As the slip breached the groyne defences, the sea eventually washed the soil away. A report commissioned by the local council noted that three failures since May 1990 had resulted in cumulative cliff top recession here of approximately 90m. Such failures can have catastrophic consequences physicaly and financially and for years afterwards property prices can fall dramatically and insurance costs, both building and contents can become difficult to acquire. Following the 1994 event, ground movement sensors were installed to give some warning of further potential movement.