ASPECTS OF ILFKACOMBE. 7 



Handsome the town of Ilfracombe is not; nor, 

 although picturesquely placed, has it a very picturesque 

 appearance, except under certain lights, and from cer- 

 tain points. The colour of the houses is pale dingy 

 grey ; the lines are all rectangular and mean. Over- 

 topping the whole town in ugliness and pretension, no 

 less than in altitude, are two terraces, which make two 

 factory-like lines of building on the slope of the green 

 hill. You see at a glance that the flounces and shaved 

 poodles Hve there. 



Yet, as I said, there were lights under which the 

 town looked well ; but what will not light transform 

 into beauty ? One evening, after a shower, I was 

 called away from the Microscope to look at the town 

 under the light of the setting sun, some peculiar 

 arrangement of the clouds, with a vivid rainbow, 

 having thrown a delicious evening tinge over the 

 houses piled on the sides of the hill, and merged the 

 ugliness of their forms in exquisite floods of colour. 

 In this light Ilfracombe looked handsome. It looked 

 resplendent, like a stupid man in the splendour of a 

 noble deed. 



If unblessed with the fatal (but agreeable) gift of 

 beauty, the little town of Ilfracombe, as a compensa- 

 tion, is uncursed with the appearances of pretension. 

 Except on those two unfortunate terraces, it gives 

 itself no airs of fashion, no demure hypocrisies of re- 

 spectability. It has no magnificent hotels ; it has no 

 popular preacher. It makes nobody miserable. Sim- 

 plex Triunditiis ; a plain face, but clean and honest. 



