Clovelly. 437 



CLOVELLY. 



BY HEXET J. SLACK, F.G.S., 

 Member of the Council of the Microscopical Society of London. 



Clovelly is without doubt one of the most remarkable places 

 in the terraqueous globe. It is to an extraordinary degree 

 queer, quaint, and beautiful. How it came to be at all is a 

 mystery, requiring a combination of all the sciences to explain. 

 When the visitor arrives within the precincts of its sunny 

 woods, unless a wrinkle of blue smoke happens to curl among 

 the trees, and the smoke suggests an unseen chimney, and the 

 invisible chimney suggests a possible house, and the possible 

 house suggests a possibility of lodgings, the prospect, though 

 aesthetically beautiful, is not quite consolatory after a ride of 

 eleven miles from Bideford to the edge of a precipitous hill, at 

 the base of which fringed waves are playing, while napping 

 sea gulls and long-necked cormorants fly by. <l Please, sir, I 

 can't drive any further, but will show you the way to the 

 lodgings," was the unexpected exclamation of our Jehu, as he 

 pulled up in the situation described. Our party of three burst 

 out laughing at this comical termination of a ride. In a moment 

 a call and whistle from the driver brought a man up from the 

 depths below, and to his care the vehicle and luggage were 

 consigned, while we followed our guide to find Clovelly town. 

 Where was it ? ISTot down the green chasm immediately in 

 front of us, as we faced the sea; for through the branching- 

 trees and thick waving ferns we could discern enough to 

 decide that no house more elaborate than a rabbit's burrow lay 

 in that direction between us and the mermaids' parlours that 

 might be found beneath the glittering wave. Our guide plunged 

 into a steep lane with bright red marly banks, and blocks of 

 protruding stone. Trees grew on both sides, and flowers 

 thick as in a garden. 'Down we went, joggling over rough 

 stones, and after getting a hundred feet lower, between a walk 

 and a stumble, we came to a broad stone staircase, and this, 

 with its accompanying cottages, was Clovelly town. In days 

 of yore, before Improvement came this way for the benefit of 

 its health, the staircase was not in anything like its present- 

 state, but a breakneck mountain path, like a wriggling stony 

 sheep track, occupied its place. Now, from the pretty white 

 cottage occupied by the carrier at the top of the glen, down to 

 the beach, 200 feet below, the stairs extend, beginning with 

 an imposing width and breadth, and narrowing as they twist 

 down to the coast. Clovelly houses are built on each side of 

 this staircase, on landings ; some have forecourts and some have 



