ILFRACOMBE LANES. 77 



than his owii Devonshire skull, I had emerged from 

 the bitterness of self-reproach at having forgotten 

 a phial, into the clearness of triumphant resource. 

 Seizing; a lar^e dock-leaf and converting it into the 

 rude resemblance of a bag, I hooked up mth my stick 

 a string of tempting scum, packed it up in the leaf, 

 and walked away wealthy. To his dying day that 

 countryman will recount, to all who will listen, the 

 inconceivable fancy of the gentry folks, who carried 

 off the filth of a pond in a dock-leaf. A queer start, 

 warn't it ? 



Where shall we ramble ? At Ilfracombe the ques- 

 tion is really puzzling, because so many lovely walks 

 solicit you. Go where you will, you cannot miss a 

 lovely walk, that is some comfort ; but there is an em- 

 barrassment of riches. Towards the close of spring, 

 when the trees are in full leaf, but still keep their deli- 

 cate varieties of colour — varieties lost in the fulness of 

 summer, to be regained with even greater beauty in 

 autumn, — at this time, when the furze is in all its 

 golden glory, perpetually tempting one to pluck a tuft 

 of blossoms as the largest specimen ever seen, and 

 scenting the air all round, Ilfracombe is enchanting. 

 So it is in summer ; but the loss of the furze is almost 

 like the fading away of the evening red. Contempo- 

 rary with the furze is the lovely primrose, here seen 

 to perfection, covering the hill-sides with pale stars, 

 almost as plentifully as butter-cups and daisies else- 

 where. In such a season, the walk to Lee seduces 

 with its beauties of rocky coast and wooded inland 



