THE SUMMIT. 163 



passing notice. Or we may find objects of interest 

 in the plants, that leave not even our rocky cliffs 

 quite barren. In spring, and lingering on even into 

 early summer, sweet and delicate tufts of primroses 

 grow in profusion on the sloping turf, and in the 

 hollows and clefts. The fleshy, glossy leaves of the 

 scurvy-grass, hot and pungent, are seen in many 

 spots, and the tufts of thrift are gay everywhere. The 

 kidney-vetch, varying from light-yellow to cream- 

 white, the bird's-foot lotus, and the bladder-campion, 

 are very abundant ; samphire adorns the precipitous 

 sides with bunches of dark-green succulent leaves, 

 flowering late in the season; curiously- cut leaves of 

 the buckhorn plantain form radiating crowns of foliage 

 over the minor clefts ; and ivy all the year round 

 spreads an ample drapery of graceful foliage over the 

 otherwise bare rock, especially in those aspects where 

 the rays of the sun can seldom reach, and where 

 flowers scarcely love to grow. 



If we trace our way up one of the winding paths 

 to the very summit, we shall be rewarded by the wide 

 grandeur of the view. At one point a corner of the 

 track comes to the very verge of the cliff, and here a 

 short iron rail is placed as a guard. Few would pass 

 this without a moment's gaze of admiration at the 

 precipice, a hundred and fifty feet in height, and 

 perfectly perpendicular, that is just over against us, 

 or a glance at Wildersmouth far beneath. The 

 wheat-ear twits and flies over the edges of the cliff as 

 we disturb him, and the rock-pipit may be seen 

 perched on some projecting rock ; while at the top 

 numerous agile wagtails are running over the breezy 



