WORK A T THE SEASHORE. 237 



pleasure of country sights. The coast of South Devon is 

 pccuh'arly brilliant in colour ; the weather happened to be 

 superb, and the unexpected beauty of every object on 

 which the sun lighted was almost intoxicating. His 

 journal is full of rapturous ejaculations of delight. On 

 the very first afternoon he went down through the em- 

 bowered hamlet of Babbicombe " to see what promise the 

 beach might afford." That beach is now familiarized and 

 vulgarized ; carriage-roads wind down to it, where break- 

 neck paths used to descend ; it is all given up, with but 

 small trace of its ancient wildness, to the comfort of 

 nursemaids and trippers. But in those days no bathing- 

 machines had invaded its savage coves and creeks. De- 

 scending at Babbicombe, and climbing along the beautiful 

 arc of alternate rock and shingle to the further extremity 

 of the beach at Oddicombe, he discovered on that first 

 afternoon a feature of extraordinary charm, a natural 

 basin in the face of the rock, a veritable little bath where 

 one might conceive the Nereids indolently collecting to 

 gossip at high noon as they plashed the water with their 

 feet :— 



*' Climbing and crawling around the face of the rough 

 *' cliff," he writes, " I found a delightful little reservoir, 

 " nearly circular, a basin about three feet wide and 

 "the same deep, full of pure sea-water, quite still, 

 " and as clear as crystal. From the rocky margin and 

 *' sides, the puckered fronds of the sweet oar-weed 

 ** {Laniinaria saccJiarind) sprang out, and gently droop- 

 '* ing, like ferns upon a wall, nearly met in the centre ; 

 " while other more delicate seaweeds grew beneath their 

 " shadow. Several sea-anemones of a kind very different 

 " from the common species, more flat and blossom-like, 

 •'with slenderer tentacles set round like a fringe, were 

 " scattered about the sides." 



