n tiers ISast ^tll 



UP, up the hill-side let us resolutely push ; between the diminu- 

 tive stony fields, roughly fenced with a few brambles, some big 

 stones, or it may be a log laid on the bank ; leaving far below 

 the tall elms cut into bottle-brushes, a custom which so greatly 

 defaces South-East Devon scarcely finding time for more than 

 a glance at the old-fashioned three-toothed plough drawn by a 

 donkey, an ox, and a sorry jade, which is slowly scratching the 

 pebbly surface of one patch at our side. Onward again ; till 

 at the edge of cultivation the last signs of man are reached, a 

 low, white-washed cottage sheltering under the brow of the hill. 

 Its domestic arrangements are primitive enough ; an open um- 

 brella hanging from the roof forms a convenient receptacle for 

 the wardrobe as well as any superfluities of the family. The 

 children do not know what coal is, as wood from the strip of 

 pine-forest hard by is always burnt on the large open hearth. 

 Wordsworth's Lucy might here have obtained in perfection 

 those mystical nature-teachings which he promised her ; these 

 urchins, for their part, daily attend the village school two 

 miles below. We knock at the half-open door with its tufts of 

 " bloody warriors " (Devon for " wall flowers ; ") out walk a 

 grey cat and a couple of fowls. Father is probably driving the 

 plough, and mother taking him dinner, so we enter. A chubby 

 boy is fast asleep in the inner chamber, whose door also stands 

 invitingly open ; with the gentle flush of childish slumbers upon 

 his cheeks and the rounded features of innocence, he is a 

 veritable Sleeping Beauty ; but, sooth to say, his face is too 



