and the climate is soft, luxurious, enervating; and yet the song of the nightingale was never heard here in its woods and copses. It possesses a beauty that cannot be beheld elsewhere, and, therefore, strikes the visitor with a hidden pleasure, elevating as it enriches the mind with a new idea of nature's excellency.

The great and little bustard were found in Devonshire, and at Kingsbridge the Cirl-bunting has been shot, and in July, 1840, the squacco.

The county of Devon, in the time of Henry I., gave the title of earl to the family of de Redvers; the title in 1334 passed into the line of the Courtenays. August 7, 1618, William Cavendish was created Earl of Devonshire; and May 12, 1694, his descendant was raised to the rank of a duke. "The gentlemen of Devon," said Queen Elizabeth, “are all born courtiers, with a becoming confidence."

The first watering-place on the coast of Devon is

SEATON.

Seaton gave the title of baron to Sir John Colborne (Dec. 14, 1839). The village lies between the Culverhole Point on the east, and Beer-head on the west; it boasts a Danish encampment (the Honey (Koenig's) ditches). In the time of Queen Elizabeth, the villagers were foiled in their intention of turning the course of the river Axe, clearing away the pebbly bar, and constructing a cob-pier. At White-Cliff the old folks averred that during a long summer-day, while the sun was darkened, King Athelstane waged battle with the Danes, fighting wearily from Brunedune to Axminster, where he buried five fallen kings, six thousand foemen, and his own martial bishop of Sherborne. At SOUTHDOWN the queen's wedding-robe of lace was made. In the cliffs eastward of the Axe the chalk occupies the upper portion, the centre is composed of green-sand, and the lower part of lias; westward, the chalk dips rapidly in that direction, and lies frequently in

shattered masses along the shore. It contains Pentacrinites, caput-Medusa, briareus, subangularis, basaltiformis, terebratulæ, and pecten. The valley of the Sid and Coly is composed of red marl, as is the lower part of the vale of the Ax. Seaton is eight miles from Lyme Regis, and six from Axminster. The little mouths or bays of Branscombe and Weston along the coast westward, with steep lofty headlands, like natural towers, are very striking. Here the labourer is seen frequently with his team ploughing on the very edge of a cliff, shaggy with hanging plants or trailing ivy, whilst against its tall crimson or parti-coloured sides flicker quick moving grey or white spots-the wings of the sea-birds. To the west, 11⁄2 mile, is BERE, with a picturesque glen and rippling stream flecked with beads of foam, and scattering its tiny spray like the fringes of a silvery scarf; while the decrepit cottages and a rugged beach with picturesque boats, present interesting objects to the artist's eye. Once notorious for Jack Ratterbury, the Rob Roy of the West, and other locally historic smugglers-expert and daring men, who when overtaken by a storm would lash together their contraband tubs, and form a raft round their open boatsBere is now as quiet as it is quaint. In 1770, Mr. Luttrell mentioned in the House of Commons, as a circumstance without parallel in the memory of man, that owing to the rigours of the press-gang on this coast, Exeter had not been supplied with fish for upwards of a fortnight.

At the distance of 2 miles eastward we reach AxMOUTH, which is situated near Hawksdown Hill, an eminence with the remains of a Roman camp. The church has a Norman doorway; and on the wall may be seen a copper bolt, inserted in 1837 by order of the surveyors employed to determine the relative levels of the English and Bristol channels. Telford proposed, in 1825, to connect them by a ship canal, to be made from Bere Road, in Seaton Bay, to Bridgewater Bay. The Vinca Minor is found here. The other places of interest in the neighbourhood are COLYTON (the Town on the river Coly) with a fine cruciform church, Perpendicular; having a stone

parclose to the south transept, and the altar-tomb of Margaret Courtenay, granddaughter of Edward IV.; the tower is octagonal in the uppermost story, the vicarage was built 1524; Colcombe Castle, once a seat of the Courtenays earls of Devon, now a farm-house; the gatehouse of Shute; and the farmhouse of Ashe, near Musbury, the birthplace of the great Duke of Marlborough, July 5, 1650; stand in the midst of a circle of Roman camps.

SIDMOUTH

Nestles in a cleft-like valley, a gentle descent between two steeps, intersected by a rivulet called the Sid, which ripples out of a little pool into the sea. The two high promontories which flank it are Salcombe Hill on the east, and High Peak on the west. They are very lofty eminences, 500 feet in height, abrupt but not rocky, rich pastures extending to their very brows, the sharp outlines of which are softened by hanging plants, constantly swaying to the breeze. The soil is marl and old red sandstone, capped with green-sand; seams of grey and yellow traverse the broad spaces of crimson. Flints fallen from the chalk form the shingle along a shore streaked at intervals by ruddy rivulets, which, trickling from the land-springs, are tinted by the earth above. Rubia peregrina, lathyrus aphaca, L. sylvestris, splachnum ampullaceum, and crambe maritima are found here; and among the pebbles, chalcedony, moss-agate, and jaspers-red, yellow, and green. Part of the east cliff fell in 1849, and about forty years since a mass 70 ft. high, and 175 ft. in circumference, slid down from the High Peak into the sea, and grounded half a mile from the shore; it was covered with fossils, and a hard ferruginous substance. In 1811 an attempt was made to construct a harbour here, but it failed. The Chitrock, an interesting break in the sea view, which the fishermen visited in annual procession, fell during a terrible storm, which tore up the beach, Nov. 29, 1824. In 1840,

a bronze Chiron, the head of a Roman standard, 7 inches long, was found under the cliff; it probably belonged to a cohort of the 11th legion of Carausius. The church of St. Nicholas (H. F. Hamilton, V.) is of the fifteenth century; it contains a monument to Dr. Currie, the biographer of Burns. There is also a chapel (H. Gibbes, P. C.) dedicated to All Saints. The esplanade and sea-wall, 1700 ft. long, were built by G. H. Julian in 1838. The town contributed two small ships to the siege of Calais. At Woodbrook Glen the Duke of Kent died, 1820; the Earl of Buckinghamshire resides on the terrace. Knowle Cottage, containing a curious miscellaneous collection made by Mr. Fish, is open on Mondays to the public. David Roberts was here making some of his exquisite sketches in 1845. The population of the town in 1831 was 3126, in 1851, 3441. Sidmouth gives the title of viscount to the family of Addington (Jan. 12, 1805).

Salcombe Hill commands a magnificent panorama, extending over a circle of from thirty to forty miles. Salcombe Regis (two miles) has the distinction of having been the last place which held out for Charles I. in Devon ; its fort was compelled to surrender, June 1646. The church of SS. Mary and Peter has a Norman tower. The church of St. Giles, Sidbury, is mixed Norman and Perpendicular. On Sidbury Hill (43 miles) is a Roman camp on the narrow tongue of the hill, with a single entrance: the camp is 1400 ft. long, by 300 ft. broad. Sidford (two miles) was the scene of a narrow escape of Charles II. from his pursuers. At Ladram Bay, westward, the view is very fine, with the waves ever chafing and booming under the cliff, in which a natural arch has been hollowed out by the billows of the eternal sea. At Nattington (three miles) was born the learned Dr. John Conant.

Ottery St. Mary, which derives its name from its situation on the river-bank (Otter-rie) is six miles north from Sidmouth. The ancient church of SS. Mary and Edward was given by Edward the Confessor to the cathedral of Rouen, but in 1335 Bishop Grandison converted it into a collegiate church. Walter Bronescombe, Bishop of Exeter

1257-1280, commenced the re-building, and Bishop Grandison completed the structure in the latter end of the fourteenth century. The Dorset chapel, which is of the beginning of the sixteenth century, and situated on the north-west side of the nave, has the arms of Bishops Courtenay, 1478-87, and Veysey, 1519. The north tower is crowned with a spire.

grouping of the

The west front

The exterior is bold and simple, the towers, chapels, and porches effective. presents three stories; in the lower is a deeply recessed doorway, parted by a pillar; above it are five lancets included in a segmental arch; in the gable is a niche, with the mutilated image of St. Mary between two trefoiled lights. The south porch was built before 1587. The aisle windows are of two-lights; the clerestory has three trefoiled lights within a segmental arch. The parapet, of the sixteenth century, is battlemented. The south tower is Early English: in the upper story there are three lancets on each face, under a string course enriched with corbel-heads: the parapet is pierced with trefoiled openings; short pinnacles flank the angles. The ritual choir extends three bays into the nave, and is laid with Minton's tiles. The chancel is of six bays, and resembles the nave; the parapet, however, is not embattled. From the fourth bay projects an Early English chapel, with a parvise above it. The Lady Chapel of three bays is Decorated. The east end has an eight-light window, with a canopied niche on either side. In the gable, which is crowned with a cross, are three niches. The Dorset, or north-west chapel, is Perpendicular, corresponding with the nave, and of six bays, which are separated by buttresses of three stages. The windows are of three lights, and the parapet battlemented. The central bay is filled by a porch and parvise. In the interior the nave piers support two centred arches; over each, in place of a triforium, there is a niche for a statue ; the ceiling is two-centred and simple; that of the aisles four-centred. The Dorset chapel has a rich fan-traceried groining and pierced pendants; the corbels represent angels. The roofs of the transepts are groined. The