A FARADISE OF FERNS. 
78 
the leaflets—giving to the plant a beautiful 
appearance. 
Our lane still winds onwards and upwards, now 
widening as if to afford a prospect of the rich 
scenery lying below us, now sinking between high 
hedges, which get higher and higher, as the steep 
path contends with the steeper hill. At length 
we reach the brow of the acclivity, and turning 
round, we can command one of the finest pros¬ 
pects in all England. Away straight below us he 
clustering houses, beautifully embowered in or¬ 
chards and fruit-gardens, with the church tower 
rising calmly above the whole. On the right of 
the town, still away below us, the eye delightedly 
rests on a wide extent of undulating meadows and 
tree-covered uplands. Beyond, the wooded up¬ 
lands rise steeper and steeper, until, in the dim 
horizon, a line of lofty hills, looming against the 
sky, bounds the view. Far away in the same 
direction, the sunlight is reflected from the silvery 
stream of the Dart, where, flowing at the feet of 
two wooded hills, it brightly contrasts with the 
dark lines of trees. 
To the left of the town, in the dim distance, 
