They must
have suffered enough then in a few years to give them a fair right to
lie quiet till Doomsday, as they seem likely to do. But it is only
old Mother Earth who has fallen asleep hereabouts. Air and sea are
just as live as ever. Ay, lovely and calm enough spread beneath us
there the broad semicircle of the bay; but to know what it can be, it
should be seen as I have seen it, when, in the roaring December
morning, we have been galloping along the cliffs, wreck-hunting.--One
morning I can remember well, how we watched from the Hartland Cliffs
a great barque, which came drifting and rolling in before the western
gale, while we followed her up the coast, parsons and sportsmen,
farmers and Preventive men, with the Manby's mortar lumbering behind
us in a cart, through stone gaps and track-ways, from headland to
headland.--The maddening excitement of expectation as she ran wildly
towards the cliffs at our feet, and then sheered off again
inexplicably;--her foremast and bowsprit, I recollect, were gone
short off by the deck; a few rags of sail fluttered from her main and
mizen.
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