184 KINGSBRIDGE 



Nearly at the top of the almost perpendicular cliffs of 

 Bolberry Down is a cavern, called Ralph's Hole, about 

 twenty feet long, six or seven broad, and eight high. It 

 is directly facing the sea, which is between four and five 

 hundred feet below. The rock at the corner of the entrance, 

 by doubling which this cavern is alone approached, projects 

 to within two or three feet of the precipice, in such a 

 manner that a single person from within might easily defend 

 his habitation from a host of foes; for only one being able 

 to pass at a time, they might successively be tumbled 

 headlong down the steep. "There is a tradition," says 

 Hawkins, "that one Ralph, in order to avoid the bailiffs 

 or the constables, made this his abode for many years ; 

 and, with a prong for his weapon of protection, kept his 

 pursuers constantly at bay." [Others say Ralph was a 

 noted smuggler, which seems, of the two, the more likely 

 account.] " On Sundays he was accustomed to wander 

 abroad, and his wife assisted him through the rest of the 

 week in getting provisions. At what period this happened 

 does not appear, but certainly it is of very old date." 



Some terrible inundation of the sea, or it may have been 

 an earthquake, has divided the cliffs about here into deep 

 fissures, and shattered immense rocks to pieces. At Ouse-hole 

 Cove there is a noble view of Bigbury Bay, the Rame Head, 

 the Eddystone, and the Cornish coast. A. mine was com- 

 menced in 1770, by John Easton, of Dodbrooke, in a part of 

 the cliffs of Bolberry Down, not far from Ralph's Hole ; but 

 it was soon abandoned on submitting the spangled produce 

 to the test of the assayer, who pronounced it to be mundic 

 instead of copper ; and the adventurer gained nothing save 

 the empty honour of leaving the shaft his name. It lies 

 about three or four hundred feet down a declivity, so steep 

 as to be scarcely accessible. 



