CLOVE LLY 
1 43 
the bosky, sloping, ferny bank on our right, beyond which, 
and away between leafy interstices and twisted branches, we 
get glimpses of the blue sea. 
A ferny bank indeed ! No lover of English scenery conld 
resist the desire to linger by this spot ; but for the Fern 
hunter, with an eye for the especial beauties of his graceful 
favourites, the place has exceptional charms. Nursed in the 
gentle shade of twisted branch and leafy stem, which .gently 
keep the dewy moisture in close attendance upon rising 
crowns and freshly verdant fronds, grow some of the finest 
of the graceful family. The dark green fronds of Laxtrea 
dilatata, the glassy fronds of Blechnum, vigorous forms of 
Lnst-rea filix-mas, and golden-green Montana, with Lady 
Ferns on Lady Ferns, both green and purple stemmed, one 
noble plant bearing — we counted them — a hundred and 
twenty charming fronds, most of them four-and-a-half feet 
long ! 
On again for some distance along a road now almost level, 
a tree-covered slope, descending from our feet on the right, 
partly screening but not hiding the blue waves of the sea : 
on our left a wooded, grassy, ferny bank. But now a turn in 
the road brings us suddenly in view of Clovelly. Away below 
us on our right the sea is softly murmuring on the shingle 
beach, its blue expanse dotted here and there with white sails. 
Looking across and beyond the high cliff which rises over the 
wooded height under which from this point Clovelly appears 
to nestle, Lundy Island is seen stretching its length across 
the sea. Now, as we go on, screening trees close over our 
path, and the scene changes in detail. O11 our left a gently 
sloping bank densely crowded, under its overgrowth of trees, 
with ferny forms. On our right also a sloping bank, now 
falling gently, and now steeply to the sea, and now presenting 
a level surface charmingly wooded and Fern dotted. Then 
for a moment the sea is hidden by a ferny bank on our right; 
