CLOVELLY 
*45 
glossy fronds of the lighter-coloured Hartstongue, which peep 
out from rootstocks nursed under the moist and congenial 
shelter of the ivy-trailers. We linger but a moment, how- 
ever, upon this wealth of evergreen. The dreamy murmur of 
the stream below us, as it runs down the bottom of the ravine 
to the sea, rivets our attention. The sides of the ravine 
steeply shelve to the bed of the stream, the trees on each side 
of which droop forward to meet each other from opposite 
sides, their ivy and moss-covered branches interlacing. From 
each side of the stream-bank, under the moist shelter of these 
overhanging trees, huge ferny forms fling out their graceful 
fronds, and mingling with the wealth of green branches away 
beyond, form a vista beneath which the stream disappears, its 
murmur becoming less and less distinct as it melts away in 
the distance. 
Turn we now to the opposite side of this rustic bridge, and 
we shall get a charming peep at a spot where Nature delight- 
fully holds her own. In mid-stream, a few yards above the 
bridge, an islet is planted narrowing on each side of it the 
channel of the brook, whose waters, divided for a moment 
into two rills, unite again ere they flow under the dark 
arches. A charming bit of Fern-land is this same islet, 
formed, no doubt, by the aggregation of earthy particles 
arrested by a group of stones in mid-stream ; but as we see 
it, with its ferny fronds and moss and ivy, it is one dense 
mass of delicious green. Snugly sheltered as it is by the 
protecting shadows of little trees, which in their turn are 
sheltered by the larger tree-growth above them, the green 
and graceful tops of Fern are, nevertheless, silvered by a 
few rays of the July sun which have coyly crept down to the 
stream through the overgrowth of arching branches, which 
in a wealth of leafiness spread themselves like a canopy 
between the blue sky and the glancing waters of the music- 
loving brook. 
