THE COMBES 179 



our combes are so called because no other word 

 serves their turn, would be a vain thing. They have, 

 indeed, a distinction, and few natural scenes can be 

 compared with these deep hollows and sudden valleys, 

 but many pretty words will serve to bring them 

 before you. They might be likened to miniature 

 presentments of the Derbyshire dales, or Scottish 

 glens made tame and tiny and sleepy. They might 

 be called denes or dingles, straths or dells, or any 

 other word that stands to mean a sequestered place 

 within the lap of high lands. 



Some of our combes open gradually, through 

 pastures and orchards, from the hills to the plains; 

 some break out in steep gullies and embouchures 

 of limestone or sandstone to the sea ; some are 

 concavities, where Nature hollows her hand to hold 

 man's homestead. Gentle depressions between red- 

 bosomed hills, wide meadows extending to the 

 estuaries of rivers, sharp rifts echoing with thunder of 

 waves, and upland plains between the high lands, 

 where whole villages cuddle, may all be combes. So 

 much do they vary in their character. 



A sort of combe peculiar to the North coast 

 is distinguished by some grandeur, and one, a fair 

 example of all, I name for reasons to appear. Its 

 deep mouth is filled with the outspread Severn Sea, 

 its sides swelling to ocean-facing precipices of five 

 and six hundred feet high are clothed in fine things, 

 dwarfed by the eternal wind, yet sturdy in their 

 struggle, and so prosperous and contented that they 



