122 COUNTRY ESSAYS. 



The enormous ham or hedges of the county, many of which 

 are visible from our points of observation, which spring from 

 broad and high banks, some wide enough for a waggon to run 

 on, are characteristic things in the landscape. They are very 

 old, and are mentioned as far back as King John's days in the 

 Charter for Disafforesting Devon. Many villages and bartons 

 take the name of Hayes from them, and the surname Hedge- 

 land is not uncommon in the two western shires. 



To the west Berry Head closes the view. Let us thread the 

 pine plantations behind us, and in a couple of hundred yards a 

 richer country, its " combes " opening to the south, spreads 

 out ; Portland gleaming on the distant horizon, and terminating 

 in this direction the field of vision. It is a sad sea to our 

 mind, this Bay of Sidmouth ; vast, monotonous, fading into the 

 blue sky-line, streaked with oily tidal lanes, but flecked by ro 

 white sails to tell of man's energy. The silent highway of com- 

 merce to the New World lies far to the south of it. Outward- 

 bound vessels after making Portland stretch across to sight the 

 Lizard, and then, skirting Mount's Bay, leave our shores by the 

 Longships Lighthouse. There is no pier at Sidmouth, and it 

 is an inconvenient place for small craft, so that but few pleasure 

 boats are seen on the Bay. A great element in our love of the 

 sea is thus wanting at Sidmouth. For it is the sense of victory 

 won and safe transit over the sea being now secured which 

 chiefly endears to us islanders our natural barrier of waves, 

 whatever the sentimentalists may say. The Laureate depicts the 

 tortures inflicted by the monotony of the Tropic Sea on his 

 " long-bearded solitary " Enoch Arden, who morn after morn 

 marked the sun's beams rise on one hand over it, to set each 

 eve on the other over a shining expanse never relieved by the 

 sight of a sail. But Sidmouth Bay is not quite so bad. As we 

 look, from a grey cloudbank glimmers a white speck, and as 

 suddenly fades back into nothingness. That glimpse is enough 

 to reassure us, and the eye returns with a longing gratified to 



