in Somersetshire, Devonshire, and Part of Cornwall. 483 



of which Cotyledon umbilicus was growing luxuriantly, while 

 the living branches were loaded with fruit; a very large crab- 

 tree; a cottage, the walls of which were covered with the broad 

 and narrow-leaved myrtle, both 12 ft. high, and overspread 

 with bloom; large hydrangeas, which become blue naturally in 

 most places that we have seen them in both Somersetshire and 

 Devonshire; and near Nettlecombe church some immense elms. 

 We had not an opportunity of looking at the grounds of Nettle- 

 combe Court till the following morning, when we were astonished 

 and delighted with the view from the windows of the house, look- 

 ing up the steep sides of the rounded hills that rose on every 

 side, and which were mostly crowned with old oak woods. The 

 immense difference between this kind of scenery, and any thing 

 that is to be met with within a 100 miles of London, produced 

 the effect alluded to ; and we found it to be a sort of key-note to 

 the impressions made by the scenery of Somersetshire and De- 

 vonshire generally. Rounded hills covered with grass to the 

 top, with winding valleys having sloping sides ; the valleys more 

 or less wide, and the sides of the hills differing in degrees of 

 steepness ; occasionally with water in the bottom in the form of 

 a small stream or brook, and rarely of a river or an inlet of the 

 sea, characterise the greater part of the scenery of Somerset- 

 shire, and at least of the South of Devonshire. There is no hill, 

 or range of hills, south of Dartmoor decidedly larger than the 

 others, so as to constitute a feature. There is not even a sharply 

 pointed hill, or one with concave sides ; and certainly nothing 

 that can be compared to hills similarly covered with grass in the 

 South of Scotland; no hills like those of Teviotdale; and no 

 valleys like those of the Tay and the Tweed. Almost all the 

 outlines of the hills in the Devonshire district are convex, but 

 the greater part of those in the Scottish and North of Eng- 

 land scenery are concave. The cause of this difference in the 

 outlines is, we apprehend, to be found in the kind of rocks ; the 

 upper ones in Scotland being chiefly basaltic, and protruded 

 through the stratified rocks, which is not the case in the greater 

 part of Devonshire. In England, however, the rich wooded 

 valleys have no parallel in Scotland ; and Somersetshire and 

 Devonshire only require to have some features of the agricul- 

 ture of Scotland and Northern England joined to their excellent 

 grass-land husbandry, to exemplify the highest degree of cul- 

 tivation of which such a country is susceptible. 



Before we proceed farther, we must notice one or two charac- 

 teristics of Somersetshire and Devonshire. The first is, that the 

 soil is almost every where red, deep, and fertile ; the second, that, 

 the surface being generally under grass, there is a predominance 

 of green in the landscape ; and the third, which, we suppose, is 

 the consequence of the other two, is, that the cottages, villas, and 



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