CH. VIII.] Surveying the Hunting Ground. 133 



cliff is four hundred feet high and nearly 

 perpendicular ; and here among the ruins of 

 an old church, part of which has fallen with 

 the slipping cliff into the sea many years ago, 

 Jack and I halt and take a look round. We 

 are on the highest spot within miles, and 

 spread out in front of us, as we face inland, 

 are, first, the down-like hills, dotted over with 

 patches of gorse and with turf between as 

 fine and soft as a Persian carpet ; then culti- 

 vated fields intersected by thick hedges ; and 

 in the distance we could distinguish a clus- 

 tering village here, a homestead there, an 

 old manor-house in its well-kept garden and 

 park-like grounds, and in all directions the 

 square, solid, picturesque towers of village 

 churches peeping from among the trees, that 

 became thicker and thicker the further the 

 eye travelled from the sea. Close to our 

 left, just under the shoulder of a hill which 

 protects it from the keen east wind off the 



