272 LEGEND OF THE HANGMAN. 



"Ocean's mermaid shepherdess 

 Drives her white flocks afield, and warns in time 

 The wary fisherman ;" 



and the dark shadows of the floating clouds were 

 chasing each other over the sparkling plain, turning 

 the brilliant whiteness of the ships' sails into a dusky 

 grey, as they fleeted by. 



Turning, I saw the valley up which I had been 

 toiling; the town of Ilfracombe embosomed among 

 the hills, the shipping in the harbour, Hillsborough 

 and other bluff headlands that distinguish this part of 

 the coast receding in succession, until they faded into 

 a dim and untraceable line far up the channel towards 

 Bristol. But prominent among them was one conical 

 mass, attracting notice as well by its superiority of 

 magnitude to all the others, as by the simple majesty 

 of its uninterrupted outline, rising to a peak from the 

 land, and then descending with a similar angle to the 

 sea. This mountain, which is between eleven and 

 twelve hundred feet above the sea-level, bears the sin- 

 gular name of the Hangman, derived from a romantic 

 incident which legendary tradition has preserved. 



Many, many years ago, it is said, a man went out 

 one night and stole a sheep from the flocks, which 

 then, as now, grazed on the slopes of these lofty 

 downs. He had killed it, and was carrying it home 

 on his back, having tied the legs with a single rope 

 which he had passed over his head, and held in his 

 hands. As he was crossing the down he came to one 

 of the low stone walls which form the fences in this 

 part of the country, and being tired he rested his 

 burden for a few minutes on the top of the wall. By 



