394 ROMANTIC INCIDENT. 



no stranger even at this height; and if you were to 

 take your stand on these steps when the tide is in, 

 you would look out on a wide hay of clear water, the 

 margin of which would he washing your feet. On 

 your left hand a projecting hluff mass of rock, jutting 

 out from the harhour-head, forms the w^estern boundary, 

 or, if you please, you may consider the more imposing 

 Capstone itself as the boundary, and this only as a 

 projection into the curve of the bay, which then you 

 must draw with a wider outline. Away to your right, 

 you see the verdant summit of Lantern Hill, crowned 

 with an ancient building that was once a Popish mass- 

 house, helping to diffuse spiritual darkness, but now 

 makes some amends by exhibiting a nightly light to 

 guide mariners to the harbour-mouth. In the rugged 

 side of the cliff you see a cavern, in which, during a 

 brief shelter from a passing shower, I made these 

 notes of the locality. 



Four or five years ago the large house from which 

 these steps descend was temporarily occupied by two 

 ladies of rank, one of whom, among other accomplish- 

 ments not very common to her sex, was distinguished 

 as an expert and fearless swimmer. She was accus- 

 tomed to plunge from these private steps when the 

 water was high, and swim out to sea, over yonder belt 

 of horrid rocks, in all weathers. On the occasion I 

 speak of, a morning in autumn, she had boldly, nay 

 rashly, sought her favourite amusement, though a gale 

 of wind was blowing, and the foaming sea was break- 

 ing in furious violence almost to the very top of the 

 wall. 



The fishermen and idlers on the quay were just 



