Sebastian; all backed up by the
fantastic mountains of Spain; the four-horned "Quatre Couronnes," the
pyramidal Jaysquivel, and beyond them again, sloping headlong into
the sea, peak after peak, each one more blue and tender than the one
before, leading the eye on and on for seemingly countless leagues,
till they die away into the ocean horizon and the boundless west.
Not a sail, often for days together, passes between those mountains
and the shore on which we stand, to break the solitude, and peace,
and vast expanse; and we linger, looking and looking at we know not
what, and find repose in gazing purposeless into the utter void.
Very unlike France are these Basque uplands; very like the seaward
parts of Devon and Cornwall. Large oak-copses and boggy meadows fill
the glens; while above, the small fields, with their five-barred
gates (relics of the English occupation) and high furze and heath-
grown banks, make you fancy yourself for a moment in England. And
the illusion is strengthened, as you see that the heath of the banks
is the Goonhilly heath of the Lizard Point, and that of the bogs the
orange-belled Erica ciliaris, which lingers (though rare) both in
Cornwall and in the south of Ireland.
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