MELCOMBE PARK 349 



side of it, and facing Bulbarrow to the north, rises 

 Nettlecombe Tout, second only to Bulbarrow in 

 height, and not much inferior to it, in the extent 

 and beauty of its view. There is no house in or 

 near Melcombe Park no inhabited house, I ought 

 to say for the one house which was built, long ago, 

 for a gamekeeper, is falling into ruins, since no one can 

 be found to live in so remote a spot. The woodland 

 is intersected by streamlets which trickle, or hardly 

 trickle, in summer, along their deep-cut beds, but, 

 in winter, become rushing torrents. In the stiff clay 

 soil you might well expect to find primeval oaks 

 or other giants of the forest. There is nothing of 

 the kind ; for the best of reasons, that in the life 

 and death struggle with Napoleon, early in the 

 last century, they were all felled to furnish forth 

 some of the noble three-deckers which, under the 

 guidance of Jervis and Collingwood and Nelson, 

 were to set bounds even to Napoleon's ambition, 

 and to secure to Great Britain the undisputed 

 command of the seas. The natives still point with 

 pride to the deep grooves in the ground, not yet 

 quite obliterated by the all-obliterating hand of 

 time, made by the great trunks, as they were being 

 dragged off towards the dockyards. 



This woodland tract, which has been left much 



