232 BABBICOMBE TO HOPE'S NOSE. 



out a tiny tinkling rivulet in the middle, with green 

 sloping sides sheeted with furze, bounded by tall cliffs 

 draped with ivy, and a shingle beach at the bottom. 

 And what a delight it is to roam along such an in- 

 dented shore as this, when opening spring is just 

 clothing all nature with loveliness, at every turn get- 

 ting a burst of some new secluded scene of beauty, 

 with the glorious sea ever bounding all ! 



Let us you and me, gentle reader, arcades ambo 

 set out together on such a walk ; it will soothe our 

 spirits, quicken our pulses, heighten our joy, and, 

 maybe, deepen our gratitude to Him who " crowneth 

 the year with His goodness, whose paths drop fatness/' 



" evil day ! if I were sullen, 



While the earth herself is adorning 

 This sweet May-morning ; 

 And the children are pulling, 

 On every side, 



In a thousand valleys far and wide, 

 Fresh flowers ; while the sun shines warm, 

 And the babe leaps up on his mother's arm ; 

 I hear ! I hear ! with joy I hear ! " 



Along the margin of a cliff, now steep and sheer, 

 now breaking into an uneven but variously verdant 

 slope, we begin our march, ever and anon pausing to 

 gaze on the smiling scene below. The descent we 

 are just leaving behind, half-covered with the gorse 

 and guelder-rose, is Oddicombe, whose white crescent 

 beach lies below, bounded by the limestone promon- 

 tory of Petit Tor, which divides the huge precipices 

 of red sandstone close at hand from the bluff coast of 



