ON OTTERY EAST HILL. 121 



intersected also by many shining streaks to which they owe 

 their emerald hue, the cunning system of irrigation in vogue in 

 the West of England. A wood, in which beech-trees grow in 

 great beauty, and whose dales are carpeted with ferns, lies in 

 Harpford Parish, to the left; whitewashed farms and grey ham- 

 lets are well represented. The red Devon cows pasture here 

 and there ; the donkeys, so much used by the cottagers on the 

 heights, browse by our side. Vale after vale lies before us 

 with the crest of the hills rising beyond. Over the estuary of 

 the Exe, on the left, are seen the Haldon Hills at a higher ele- 

 vation than the long, swelling heights of Woodbury. They ter- 

 minate in the wooded projection of Mamhead. Beyond the 

 Haldon range run the faint blue peaks of Dartmoor, the twin 

 points of Hey Tor being distinctly visible ; while glimmering 

 through the haze and closing the extensive panorama are the 

 shadowy outlines of two Cornish giants, Rough Tor and Brown 

 Willy. These natural features remind us how severely West- 

 cote is exercised in his View of Devonshire (1630), on the deri- 

 vation of the county's name. He summarily rejects the fancy 

 of those who would name it from the Danes (quasi Daneshire) ; 

 though there are modern etymologists who still connect the 

 Den at Teignrnouth with those invaders. The " combes " 

 everywhere met with in Devon suggest to him that their ancient 

 name, Diffinent or Dennan, appears in the county's name, 

 while another natural feature, the rivers (in Keltic, Afon\ con- 

 tends with this view, as from them might be derived De-afon- 

 shire or Devonshire. He leaves the difficulty, however (as we 

 may too), " with him who, like Naevius, can, cotem novacula 

 scindere, cleave hard stones with razors." The rough uneven 

 surface, again, leads him to compare it with Ithaca in Homer 

 and Horace, non est aptus equis, &c., or as the proverb, which 

 he quotes, runs 



The country is best for the bider 

 That's most cumbersome to the rider. 



