262 



LAST YEARS IN ENGLAND. [Chap. VI. 



now more beautiful than ever. The removal of the organ to 

 the side between two pillars, enables us to see the full beauty 

 of the unique roofing of the three equal aisles. . . . We walked 

 home with Mr. Corfe, the organist of my boyish days, who 

 described the rebuilding of the organ, etc. He said the 

 narrow lofty aisles of Redcliffe are miserable for sound ; while 

 the echoes of the stone-roofed Cathedral are more deliciously 

 beautiful than ever. Except at Winchester, I never heard such 

 exquisite chanting." 



He began his lecture-tour at Devonport and Plymouth, and 

 then proceeded to Cornwall, which was quite new to him, and 

 he was much interested in the people and the scenery. When 

 at Wadebridge, his friends, Mr. and Mrs. Norway, took him 

 to "Hell Bay": "I have seen many grand tides round our 

 island; but never anything so majestic as that bay. It was 

 the height of the higher spring : and the tide-waves rolled, 

 huge and distant, straight from the south-west ocean currents. 

 Never before had I seen them from shore so far apart that a 

 ship could ride between. They reminded me of the gale in 

 the Kangaroo, when we could only see the waves on each 

 side of us. Then we looked up at them ; now down from the 

 height. Some time we waited for each one to roll up its vast 

 carcass, till it crested up its head in 'proud curl, and then 

 dashed its full force against the first-formed rocks which guard 

 our isle. The spray dashed the full height of the rocks, some 

 eighty feet, and the wave itself rolled up the ledge where we 

 were sitting in fancied security. You should have heard 

 Mrs. N.'s ringing, merry laugh as her skirt was suddenly 

 submerged. It was like a peal of bells between the roar of 

 the waves ; things human and sublime strangely intermingling. 

 But we might have gone a hundred times, and never have 

 seen, even at winter high spring tide, what met our gaze in the 

 middle of the bay. The near rocks were in deep shadow ; but, 

 beyond, the sun and the strong east wind met each advancing 

 wave ; and as the wind drove back the advancing crest, and 

 catching the foam hurled it in an instant back, covering the 

 trough a full furlong with snow, the bright sun changed it into 



