6 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



I the talent, the picture would be tempting, for the 

 charms of the place are manifold. The country all 

 round is billowy with hills, which rarely seem to 

 descend into valleys. The paradox may move your 

 scepticism ; you may bring excellent reasons, physical, 

 geological, and geographical, to prove that wherever 

 there are hills there must be valleys. Nevertheless, the 

 abstract force of what must he vanishes before the con- 

 crete force of what is; and at Ilfracombe you will find 

 hills abounding, hills rising upon hills, but not always 

 making valleys. What the French picturesquely call 

 the mouvement du terrain, which suggests hills in 

 motion like the waves, is here seen on every side ; and 

 these waving slopes are in spring-time pale with prim- 

 roses, or flaming with furze. If you get sight of a bit 

 of earth to vary the verdure, it is of that rich red-brown 

 marl which warms the whole landscape. If you climb 

 one of those hills, the chances are that you come upon 

 a rugged precipice sheer over the sea ; unless a green 

 slope leads gently do\\Ti to it. These breezy hills, and 

 the soft secluded valleys (there are valleys), and the 

 matchless lanes which intersect the land with beauty, 

 afford endless walks of varied delight. The lanes of 

 Devonshire are celebrated ; but what Shakespeare's 

 works are to the criticisms which celebrate them, these 

 lanes are to their reputation. Were I to enter one of 

 them, and begin describing it, we should never get 

 down to the shore, whither I see your impatient foot- 

 steps tend. To the shore, then ! and as we pass, we 

 can take a glimpse of the town. 



