stone cliffs are cast in a thousand fantastic forms, and now a bold, bluff headland runs out into the seething waters; now they, in their turn, rush with a whoop and a roar far into a deep recess.

Sweeping round Frowant Point, we hail with delight the verdurous hills, slow-sloping to the ocean marge, which enclose the fair, bright bay of Dartmouth. "The bay," says Gilpin, "which the river Dart forms at its mouth, is one of the most beautiful scenes upon the coast. Both the entrance of the Dart into it, and its exit to the sea, appear from many stations closed up by the folding of the banks, so that the bay has frequently the form of a lake, only furnished with shipping instead of boats. Its banks, which are its great beauty, consist of lofty wooded hills, shelving down in all directions."

Spenser alludes to the Dart as

"Well nigh choked with sands of tinny mines,"

but it is not the less a most delightful river,-swift as an arrow in its course, and winding through many enchanting landscapes. From the rapidity with which it swells, and its consequent perils, has arisen the old Devonshire superstition,

"River of Dart! O river of Dart!

Every year thou claimest a heart."

The on-coming of the flood is betokened by the increasing blueness of the waters.

It rises from the bosom of an abrupt hill, near Cranmere Pool, and amid the dreary solitudes of Dartmoor. Thence, under the name of the West Dart, it sweeps across a black, bare waste, and through a deep and narrow defile-bounded on either side by gaunt bleak tors-receiving several tributaries, and still increasing in its speed, until it is joined by the Eastern Dart near DARTMEET BRIDGE. Rippling past HOLME PARK, about 1 mile from Ashburton, and the picturesque Tudor mansion of BUCKFASTLEIGH, it winds through a richly-wooded vale to TOTNESS : and thence, in the shadow of dark precipitous rocks, through the leafy glades of SHARPHAM PARK (Captain Bastard), and across the fertile leas of STOKE GABRIEL,-now widening between the green and sheltering hills,-now eddying round an abrupt projection, -now dimpling into a tranquil pool,-passing the luxuriant woods of DITTISHAM and the bold heights of SANDRIDGE (Lord Cranstoun), it broadens at length into a glorious lake-like estuary, and mingles its waters with the sea.

DARTMOUTH.

[Population, 4508. Inns: Castle, Brown's Family and Commercial.

A boat to and from Totness daily, according to tide. Fare 1s.

206 m. from London; 10 m. from Totness; 17 m. from Newton Abbots; 13 m. from Torquay; 25 m. from Plymouth; 7 m. from Start Point.

BANKERS-National Provincial Bank.]

The town originally consisted of three independent hamlets, CLIFTON, DARTMOUTH, HARDNESSE, and the former is still an appendage of the parish of Stoke Fleming, the two latter of the parish of Townstall. A market was granted to Dartmouth by Henry III., and the privilege of "mairalte," or "mayoralty," by King John; a privilege conferred by Edward III. in 1342.

In 1190 it was visited by the Crusaders' fleet, and stormed by the French during the absence of Richard I. in Palestine. In 1338 the Dartmouth mariners captured five large French ships, and slew all their crews but nine. In 1347 the port contributed 31 ships towards the ever-memorable expedition against Calais, and thirty years later was again ravaged with fire and sword by the French. In 1403 a fleet of Dartmouth vessels engaged, captured, and destroyed 41 sail off the shores of France. In the following year Sir William de Chalet and his freebooters made a descent upon the valley of the Dart, but were surprised by the Devonshire hinds, the leader, three barons, and 20 knights taken prisoners, and most of the common men slain. It withstood a month's siege by Prince Maurice, September 3d to October 4th, 1643, but was finally compelled to surrender. Lord Fairfax recaptured it on a Sunday morning in the middle of January 1646. Newcomen, the engineer, who in some measure indicated to James Watt "the way he should go," was born at Dartmouth. Flavell, the divine, was buried there, in the Presbyterian church, 1691. At Sandridge, on the Dart, was born John Davis, the great Elizabethan navigator; and it was from Dartmouth he sailed in June 1585 in command of the "Sunshine," 50 tons, and 23 men, and the "Moonshine," 25 tons, and 29 men; and again in May 1586, with the "Sunshine," the "Moonshine," and a large vessel of 120 tons called the Mermaid. In his third voyage, 1587, one of his ships was the "Elizabeth of Dartmouth."

ST. SAVIOUR'S CHURCH is a fine cruciform building, of Edwardian architecture, possessing a very rich and beautiful interior. It was consecrated by Bishop Brantingham. The oaken screen

which formerly supported the rood-loft, and still separates the nave from the chancel, is graceful in design and execution. The pulpit of stone, elaborately enriched with wood-carvings; the misereres; the iron scroll-work on the great door, representing a spreading-tree with two leopards standing on its branches; and the altar-piece by Brockledon, are worthy of careful examination. A slab inlaid with rich canopies in brass, and figures of John Hawley, d. 1408, and his two wives, will recall the memory of that merchant knight who, in 1390, "waged the navie of shippes of the portes of his owne charges, and tooke foure and thirtie shippes laden with wine, to the summe of 1500 tunne.” He throve and prospered so with his wealth that men said of him,— "Blow the wind high, or blow it low,

It bloweth fair to Hawley's Hoe."

During the greater part of Henry IV.'s reign he represented Dartmouth in Parliament; and Leland tells us that in his time vast ruins of the opulent merchant's mansion were remaining in Dartmouth-Hardness.

Near the entrance to the harbour stands the small quaint church of ST. PETROCK, and on a point of land below it DARTMOUTH CASTLE. Of its two towers the circular one dates from the reign of Henry VIII. The two platforms mount 12 guns. On the cliff stands a small fort called GALLANT'S BOWER, in allusion to the ancient entrenchments which surround it, and whose origin has been debated of by so many speculative antiquarians. The best explanation seems to be that which regards them as the arena of certain public games. PARADISE FORT is further east.

The bay will shelter, it is said, 500 ships, and is lined by busy quays and teeming dockyards. The exports are cider and barley; the imports fruits, wine, salt, and oil from the Mediterranian, and salt fish and cod from Newfoundland. In the older part of the town a quaint effect is produced by the numerous gables and richly carved fronts of its Elizabethan houses-now rapidly passing away before "the march of improvement." As a whole, however, Dartmouth is scarcely an agreeable resting-place for the tourist. Totness would answer his purpose better; and, by the way, the voyage down the river from Totness to Dartmouth is one of surpassing beauty.

[We shall but briefly enumerate the points of interest in the vicinity of Dartmouth, as we reserve a fuller description of this neighbourhood for our visit to Totness (ROUTE Xii.).