HOLNE BRIDGE. 387 



sheep's-bit scabious, an old acquaintance, were peeping 

 everywhere. 



Pursuing the high road a few rods farther, we 

 arrived at Holne Bridge, a solid granite structure that 

 spans the Dart, well clad with ancient ivy and ferns. 

 From the roof of its main arch depend stalactites, 

 nine inches or more in length, formed by the free lime 

 of its cement, each one bearing evidence, in its 

 terminal drop of clear lime water, surrounded by a 

 thin and brittle coat, of present increase. 



Here we loitered for hours, lounging under the cool 

 shadow of the bridge, admiring the Jungermannice 

 and mosses that so luxuriantly cushioned the beetling 

 hollows of the rock ;* or gazing alternately up and 

 down the river, from above the bridge and from below 

 up, where the stream comes brawling and sparkling 

 down, curving round from the heights of Buckland 

 woods, a mass of white foam, broken by dark rocky 

 boulders ; below, dark and mirror-like between tall 

 beech woods on either bank; or peering, with that 

 strange fascination which impels one with an ever 

 increasing power to plunge in, on the deep hollows, si 

 black and yet so smooth so treacherously and invit- 

 ingly smooth " like sin," as my little son said. 



I did not estimate the height of the bridge ; but 

 from recollection I should think the arch about twenty 

 feet above the water as I saw it. Yet I was assured 

 that occasionally the river is so swollen that the flood 

 completely fills the arch. It must be a grand sight 



* Splachnum ampullaceum was particularly large and fine here. 



