THE VALLEYS OF THE LYN 
127 
and away to onr left like a great sea of green. Opposite us 
the wooded hill which rises from the hidden course of the 
Lyn soars beautifully and majestically up against the sky. 
But away to the left *it gradually sinks, giving, beyond, 
the prospect of a beautiful hilly vista, in the background 
of which a bleak and rugged hill contrasts with the leafy 
charms of all around. For some distance along the course 
we have been following, the Lyn has been hidden by an 
impenetrable overgrowth of trees. But away to the left, 
just where the glen bends round and hides its further course 
from view, the stream appears again for a few yards, the 
foam of the current, as it boils over the big stones in its bed, 
beautifully contrasting with the darker body of the stream, 
with the waving sea of green leaves around, and with the 
intense blue of the sky. Away below, where the steeply 
sloping bank runs down to the water, and just in the depth 
of the ravine, a house is charmingly perched, the whole of 
it hid from view except its pointed slate roof, which we can 
see peeping out from its green surroundings. At this point 
it is that the waters of the Brendon River and the East Lyn 
meet. Here also the two glens unite and blend into a deep 
gorge, which with the river at its bottom runs down to 
Lynmouth. 
As from this point our road winds round to the left, the 
prospect is magnificent. Right below us, on the river 
side, the bank falls almost sheer to the level of the roaring 
stream. The bottom of the glen is here broadened, but 
the Lyn is almost entirely concealed from view by trees 
which overshadow its banks, for through the dense and 
glorious mass of green formed by the tangled tree tops 
we can see only the white foam of the water. Above the 
whole the wood-covered hill rises almost perpendicularly to 
the sky, its side densely clothed, except in places where 
bare patches are strewn with splintered fragments of stone. 
