6 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



the concrete force of what is ; and at Ilfracombe you will 

 find hills abounding, hills rising upon hills, but not always 

 making valleys. What the French picturesquely call the 

 niouvement du terrain, which suggests hills in motion like 

 the waves, is here seen on every siile ; and these waving 

 slopes are in springtime pale with primroses, or flammg 

 with furze. If you get sight of a bit of earth to vary the 

 verdure, it is of that rich red-brown marl which warms the 

 whole landscape. If you climb one of those hills, the 

 chances are that you come upon a rugged precipice sheer 

 over the sea, unless a green slope leads gently down to it. 

 These breezy hills, and the soft secluded valleys (there are 

 valleys), and the matchless lanes which intersect the land 

 mth beauty, afibrd endless walks of varied dehght. The 

 lanes of Devonshire are celebrated ; but what Shakespeare's 

 works are to the criticisms which celebrate them, these lanes 

 are to their reputation. Were I to enter one of them, and 

 begin descriliing it, we should never get down to the shore, 

 whither I see your impatient footsteps tend. To the shore, 

 then I and as we pass, we can take a glimpse of the town. 



Handsome the town of Ilfracombe is not ; nor, although 

 picturesquely placed, has it a very picturesque appearance, 

 except under certain lights, and from certain points. The 

 colour of the houses is pale dingy grey ; the lines are all 

 rectangular and mean. Overtopping the whole town in 

 ugliness and pretension, no less than in altitude, are two 

 terraces, which make two factory-like lines of building on 

 the slope of the green hill. You see at a glance that the 

 flounces and shaved poodles live there. 



