70 anstey's cove. 



abrupt precipice of compact limestone, which has 

 been quarried away for some distance inland, leaving 

 only the flat base like a stone-cutter's yard a little 

 above the water s edge, to mark where the cliff for- 

 merly reached- Alongside of this base, as at a 

 natural pier, craft of considerable size lie, and receive 

 their cargoes of the quarried marble, and one or more 

 may commonly be seen here. I inquired of a quarry- 

 man if there were any practicable access to this plat- 

 form, but found there was none but a narrow and pre- 

 carious path from the summit, available only to the 

 practised feet of the stone-workers. Nor can they 

 always tread it with impunity ; he mentioned a quarry- 

 man who was lately dashed to pieces by falling from 

 near the summit although he had been nearly fifty 

 years in the occupation. 



This abrupt head forms one boundary of Anstey's 

 Cove, a favourite resort of Torquay visitors, and a 

 very picturesque scene. A beach of pebbles of snowy 

 whiteness, among which the fossil madrepores for 

 which the vicinity is famed, are often found, is divid- 

 ed by a projecting pile of rocks into two coves, the 

 one of which is overlooked by the stupendous lime- 

 stone precipice, and the other merges into a shore 

 strewn with boulders, beneath a lower cliff of slate 

 and shale. 



I found the base of the precipitous rocks to the 

 south of this latter cove very productive. Beneath 

 the shadow of the cliffs, animals are much more 

 numerous under the limestone boulders, than they 

 are under similar stones where the sun shines, though 

 only just left uncovered by the tide. Very fine tufts 



