8 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



sirs ! I was continually reminded of some small Ger- 

 man town, and the simple honesty and obligingness of 

 the people helped the resemblance. As you enter 

 from the Braunton road, there is a white-washed inn, 

 now untenanted, of the most primitive structm^e, and 

 bearing the words 



BEAUNTON INN 



painted in tall brown letters all along the frontage, 

 which I never passed without some vague reminiscence 

 of Germany rising up, so exactly does this turn of the 

 road repeat many turns of road I have come upon in 

 my wanderings. An avenue of mountain-ash, with 

 their bright red clusters brilliant against the hot blue 

 sky, or rows of plum-trees with their purple fruit, 

 pleasing the eye and refreshing the palate during the 

 dusty walk, would have made the illusion complete. 



Let us pass this inn, and turn up the steep hill, on 

 the summit of which stands the handsome church ; we 

 then descend the slope which leads to the Baths. On 

 the other side of the hedge, upon our left, rise the soft 

 uplands ; and a little behind them the majestic Seven 

 Tors, which with their shaggy heads towards the sea, 

 and their soft-swelling slopes of green towards the land, 

 remind us of some mighty animal which has reared 

 itself on its fore-paws to gaze at the yet mightier 

 ocean. From these uplands you perpetually hear the 

 cry, day and night, of the landi'ail — just like the 

 creaking of a wicker-basket — so that you begin to 

 wonder when that unmusical bird takes its repose. 



