Meanwhile Claude
ought to have seen the deer-park. The panorama from that old ruined
'bower' of cliff and woodland, down and sea, is really unique in its
way.
'So is the whole place, in my eyes,' said Claude. 'I have seen
nothing in England to be compared to this little strip of paradise
between two great waste worlds of sea and moor. Lynmouth might be
matched among the mountains of Wales and Ireland. The first three
miles of the Rheidol, from the Devil's Bridge towards Aberystwith, or
the gorge of the Wye, down the opposite watershed of the same
mountains, from Castle Dufferin down to Rhaiadyr, are equal to it in
magnificence of form and colour, and superior in size. But I
question whether anything ever charmed me more than did the return to
the sounds of nature which greeted me to-day, as I turned back from
the dreary, silent moorland turnpike into this new road, terraced
along the cliffs and woods--those who first thought of cutting it
must have had souls in them above the herd--and listened to a
glorious concert in four parts, blending and supporting each other in
exquisite harmony, from the shrill treble of a thousand birds, and
the soft melancholy alto of the moaning woods, downward through the
rich tenor hum of innumerable insects, who hung like sparks of fire
beneath the glades of oak, to the bass of the unseen surge below,
"Whose deep and dreadful organ-pipe,"
far below me, contrasted strangely with the rich soft inland
character of the deep woods, luxuriant ferns, and gaudy flowers.
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