THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

The three great elemental sounds in nature are the sounds of rain, the sound of wind in a primeval wood, and the sound of outer ocean on a beach.  I have heard them all, and of the three elemental voices, that of ocean is the most awesome, beautiful, and varied.  For it is a mistake to talk of the monotone of ocean or of the monotonous nature of its sound. The sea has many voices.  Listen to the surf, really lend it your ears, and you will hear in it a world of sounds: hollow boomings and heavy roarings, great watery tumblings and tramplings, long hissing seethes, sharp, rifle-shot reports, splashes, whispers, the grinding undertone of stones, and sometimes vocal sounds that might be the half-heard talk of people in the sea.

Beston/House, 1928