I2O COUNTRY ESSAYS. 



headland, Beer Head, behind us, the last point westward 

 where chalk is seen, and consists of sandstone, with green 

 earth, chert, and flints. Through its entire extent this area ex- 

 hibits extensive marks of denudation. Thus the table-land 

 from which we look possesses but a scanty covering of soil. 

 There is a substratum of tenacious yellow clay, or sometimes 

 the sandstone rises almost to the surface with a thin covering of 

 flints and rounded pebbles, that tell their own tale, with a 

 scanty surface vegetation. In the valleys around the hills of 

 this greensand formation that is below us, are the red marls 

 and conglomerates of the new red sandstone, fertile in elms 

 and corn-fields, while the surface soil of this East Hill has been 

 washed down the sides, resting but little on the slopes high up, 

 but remaining deeper below, and lying rich, deep, and produc- 

 tive in the descents and " combes " which lie yet lower down. 

 This accounts for the barren plateau on which we are standing, 

 with its fern, heather, and furze, while pastures, corn-fields, and 

 orchards are piled, as it were, one on the other below us ; and 

 the boundary line, being nowhere strictly drawn between desola- 

 tion and productiveness on the East Hill's slopes, runs pictur- 

 esquely like a dark rim along its flanks, matching, in some sort, 

 the fringe of Scotch firs which crowns it every here and there, 

 and shows to the dweller in the vales patches of blue sky 

 between the boles. 



This contrast of hill and dale, fertility and barreness, makes 

 up an epitome of Devonshire scenery. All the characteristics 

 of the county are here presented to the eye, save the dark 

 slate rock walls which, on the north and south-west, confront 

 the sea. The features on which depend so much of the pic- 

 turesqueness which we are wont to associate with Devonshire 

 are here especially prominent the wealth of wild flowers, the 

 deep winding lanes, the moss-grown orchards, small enclosures, 

 and huge rough banks. Far away under the West Hill runs a 

 broad silvery band, the Otter river, through deep green meadows, 



