Down we wandered from our height through 'trim walks and alleys
green,' where the arbutus and gumcistus fringed the cliffs, and
through the deep glades of the park, towards the delicious little
cove which bounds it.--A deep crack in the wooded hills, an old mill
half buried in rocks and flowers, a stream tinkling on from one rock-
basin to another towards the beach, a sandy lawn gay with sea-side
flowers over which wild boys and bare-footed girls were driving their
ponies with panniers full of sand, and as they rattled back to the
beach for a fresh load, standing upright on the backs of their
steeds, with one foot in each pannier, at full trot over rocks and
stones where a landsman would find it difficult to walk on his own
legs.
Enraptured with the place and people, Claude pulled out his sketch-
book and sat down.
'What extraordinary rocks!' said he, at length. 'How different from
those Cyclopean blocks and walls along the Exmoor cliffs are these
rich purple and olive ironstone layers, with their sharp serrated
lines and polished slabs, set up on edge, snapped, bent double,
twisted into serpentine curves, every sheet of cliff scored with
sharp parallel lines at some fresh fantastic angle!'
Yes; there must have been strange work here when all these strata
were being pressed and squeezed together like a ream of wet paper
between the rival granite pincers of Dartmoor and Lundy.
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