512 
Fanning in Devon and Cornwall. 
course southwards and westwards a succession of small but rich 
pastoral valleys, which, clothed as they are with luxuriant 
herbage, and studded with fine spreading timber trees, present 
to the traveller's view rich scenes of picturesque beauty and of 
agricultural prospects which are unsurpassed in any other 
county. As Carrington the Poet says : — 
Ever varied too 
Is the rich prospect. Valleys softly sink 
Arid uplands swell. No level sameness is seen, 
"While in the distance, happily disposed, 
Sweeps round the bold Dartmoor. 
Below Exeter, and after passing in close proximity to 
Dawlish, and sundry other of the favourite winter resorts, the 
line runs, on its way to Plymouth, through the South Hams 
portion of the county, a district which is frequently, and 
not inaptly, termed the " Garden of Devon." This district 
extends from the foot of the Dartmoor range of hills to 
the southern shores of the county, and is estimated to cover 
an area of about 100,000 acres. For richness of soil, and 
general agricultural features and aspects, there are few better 
districts in the kingdom, nor can a more pleasing picture of 
rural beauty and serenity be imagined than that of a South 
Hams village with its thatched roofs and " cob " chimneys — ■ 
" daughters of thatch and stone and mud," as John AVoolcott 
(Peter Pindar) calls them — peeping above the foliage and 
branches of the surrounding orchards. 
The South- Western Railway, as it runs from Axminster, low 
down on the south-eastern boundary, through Exeter and past 
Crediton on its journey to encompass the northern and western 
sides of the bleak and hilly Dartmoor (an area of 250,000 acres), 
traverses a somewhat similar district until Yeoford Junction is 
reached, when suddenly the prospect changes, and a most com- 
plete contrast comes into view. The rich yellow of tlw? butter- 
cups in the luxuriant water meadows of the valley of the Exe 
gives place to that of the gorse, which is so indicative of poverty 
in the soil. The appearance of warmth which the red soil, over- 
lying the old sandstone, imparts to the picture visible east- 
wards, gives way to the grey and cold sterility of undrained 
clays, whilst the broad and superabundant banks in the valleys 
have but miserable substitutes in the district where their shelter 
seems most needed. All signs of comparative agricultural -suc- 
cess (all success in agriculture is but comparative nowadays), 
or of application of capital to the development of the inherent 
capabilities of the soil, are absent except in a few rare instances, 
where laudable native enterprise has struggled against natural 
