64 THE LAND'S END 



appearance of gigantic castles by the sea, and that 

 they served as castles to the ancient inhabitants of 

 the land we know, as in many instances the primitive 

 earthworks, the trench and embankment raised to cut 

 them off from the land, remain to this day. But 

 the thought of the " dreadful past " is not so in- 

 sistent in these castles, which were my houses by 

 the sea, as at the Land's End promontory, and 

 would almost vanish in the brilliant sunshine and 

 in view of the wide expanse of ocean flecked with 

 dazzling foam. 



I could hardly imagine a higher pleasure than was 

 mine on many a bright day in winter and spring, 

 when I had the whole coast pretty well to myself and 

 spent long hours in rambling from point to point 

 and in gazing out on the sea from my seat on 

 some rocky pile that crowned one of the bolder 

 headlands. 



I had heard a good deal about the beautiful colour 

 of the sea in these parts, yet was often surprised at 

 the sight of it. I had seen no such blues and greens 

 on any other part of the British coast ; and no such 

 purples in the shallower waters within the caves and 

 near the cliffs where the rocks beneath were over- 

 grown with seaweed. Where these great purple 

 patches appeared on the pure brilliant green it was 

 veritably a " wine-purple sea " and looked as if hun- 

 dreds of hogsheads of claret or Burgundy had been 

 emptied into it. 



But the sea and its colour and the joy of a vast 

 expanse would not have drawn me so often to the 



