BRAUNTON. 281 



The hedges hereabout are composed of oak and hazel, 

 and the nuts, which were very plentiful this season, 

 hung enveloped in their green coats, in inviting 

 clusters. 



The countrv around Braunton is so fertile that it 

 is frequently called the Goshen of Devon. A great 

 deal of corn is cultivated, and it was more advanced 

 to maturity than any that I had seen elsewhere. 

 Reaping had just commenced, and the fields were 

 lively with the voices of the cheerful husbandmen, 

 gathering in the gifts which a bounteous God had so 

 richly provided. ''Thou crownest the year with thy 

 goodness, and thy paths drop fatness : they drop 

 u]3on the pastures of the wilderness, and the little 

 hills rejoice on every side : the pastures are clothed 

 with flocks : the vallevs also are covered over with 

 corn: they shout for joy, they also sing." 



Braunton possesses little to attract notice, except 

 the ancient church, which I did not enter. It is said 

 to contain some curious carvings in good preser- 

 vation ; one of these, in a pannel of the roof, repre- 

 sents the singular subject of a sow with a litter of 

 pigs ; in allusion to the ridiculous legend, that St. 

 Branock, its founder was directed bv a dream to 

 build a church on the first spot on which he might 

 find a sow and pigs. 



I found in the church-yard a monumental stone, 

 elaborately carved, and inscribed ^\ith the following 

 epitaph; which I copy for its curiosity, and not 

 from any s}Tnpathy with the doctrine inculcated 

 in it, of the excellence of celibacy, nor with the per- 

 version of scripture which it contains. 



