TOWNSTALL (population, 1350), mile west, has a good old CHURCH, dedicated to St. Clement (with a tower 70 feet high), which was fortified by the royalists during the Civil War with 10 guns, and defended by 100 men. BROOK HILL (J. Devonport, Esq.) lies to the north. The gardens and grounds have an air of quiet beauty. Visit, while here, the neighbouring ruins of KINGSWEAR CASTLE. STOKE FLEMING (population, 707), about 2 miles south-west, may be visited for its ancient CHURCH, which contains two fine brasses.]

III-DARTMOUTH TO PLYMOUTH.

[To Tor Cross, 7 m.; Start Point, 34 m.; Prawle Point, 5 m.; Bolt Head, 3 m.; Bolt Tail, 5 m.; Erme River, 7 m.; Stoke Point, 5 m.; Plymouth, 6 m.]

The breadth of sea included between the headlands of Froward Point, north, and Start Point, south, is called Start Bay.

Soon after we have quitted Dartmouth the groves of STOKE FLEMING appear in a bend of the coast, and as we sail slowly onward, the desolate tower of POOLE PRIORY rises on its lonely hill. The gray slate cliffs are here precipitous and sullen. TOR CROSS, 7 miles, a small but pleasant watering-place, is next arrived at, and we may, if we will, walk along its smooth firm sands for full 3 miles. Separated from the coast by a narrow strip of land shimmers and rustles the broad expanse of SLAPTON LEA—a lake, 300 acres in extent, thronged with fish and wild fowl, and fringed with a curious bordure of aquatic plants. SLAPTON (population, 706) itself is about 3 miles north. CHURCH, dedicated to St. Mary, has Early English characteristics, a good font, and a richly wrought screen. On the high ground, in the rear of Tor Cross, stands the Perpendicular CHURCH of St. Barnabas, STOKENHAM (population, 1603), to which the tourist, if he lands at Tor Cross, should certainly pay a visit. STOKELEY HOUSE (Sir L. Newman, Bart.) is in this neighbourhood.

Its

START POINT is easily recognized by its lighthouse, which, on the bluff bold headland lifts up "its massive masonry." Passing many coves and far-reaching ridges (of mica slate, sparkling with veins of quartz) we reach a dangerous projection of the gneissa confused heap of rugged weather-worn rocks, sharp and jagged as the teeth of some huge monster-known as PRAWLE POINT, where Her Majesty's good ship Crocodile was disastrously wrecked. The shore here trends away to the north-east, towards the Kingsbridge creek. On the ascent stands PORT-LE-MOUTH. Crossing

the inlet, which is tidal as far as KINGSBRIDGE (ROUTE xii., see post), we catch sight of SALCOMBE, where Sir Edmund Fortescue held the castle for his king, and gallantly withstood a siege of four months-sweep over the north and south sands, and their petrified forest of hazels—and gladly round the lofty promontory of BOLT HEAD, where the mica slate, relieved in fissure and hollow by the purple heather and the yellow lichen, towers to a height of 430 feet.

The coast for the next five miles wears an aspect of savage grandeur. Frequent landslips have riven it into a series of dark ravines and rugged headlands where the sea-birds make their home, and the winds moan eternally as if in search of something loved and lost, and the ocean sends up the roar of its restless waters. It is a coast little loved by the mariner-except when the summer sea brightens gladly beneath the summer sun- -for the howling billows of the channel, lashed into fury by a southwest wind, roll hitherwards with all the impetuosity of madness, and woe to the unhapy barque which they hurl against these unfriendly rocks!

Stair Hole.

After leaving BOLT HEAD we pass, in succession,
Colbury Down.
Falcombe (perhaps Vale-combe). Vincent Pits.
Saw Mill Cove.

Smuggler Ralph's Hole.

The BOLT TAIL, where may be examined RAMILLIES-COVE, the scene of the wreck of H.M.S. Ramillies.

We now enter BIGBURY BAY, and steer at once for THURLSTONE (population, 460), and the mouth of the Avon, whose waters ripple round Burr Island as they pass into the Channel. BIGBURY (population, 583) stands upon the hills, about 2 miles from the coast. The CHURCH is dedicated to St. Lawrence, and contains a good east window, an ancient font, a well-carved pulpit removed from Ashburton, and a brass to Dame Elizabeth de Bigbury.

Beyond Beacon Point the Erme enters the sea, after a brief but romantic course through a wild and rugged country. Then the rocks become ruder and darker as we advance; nature seems to abandon all her grace, tenderness, and tranquil beauty, to wear that stern and gloomy aspect which has always so depressing an effect upon the mind and energies of man. You feel as if a

death-cold hand had laid its intolerable burthen on your heart. Terrible voices seem to mutter in your ears. Even the sunshine loses its gratefulness, and you begin to understand how helpless, how miserable were man if the world could shew him no bowery vales, no laughing meadows, and no rippling streams.

REVELSTOKE CHURCH stands on the coast like a beacon, worn by many a winter gale, and lone enough as it faces, day and night, the surging sea. Then we round the well-known STOKE POINT, the eastern extremity of Plymouth Sound, pass the mouth of the little Yealm, which flows into the ocean between a double range of hills and the villages of NEWTON FERRERS (population, 749), E., and WEMBURY (population, 577), W.-where the Danes, in 851, were repulsed by Earl Cecil of Devon-and so in due time find ourselves in sight of Plymouth.

PLYMOUTH: The MOUTH of the PLYM.

[Population, 102,380. Inhabited Houses, 10,132. Inns: Royal, Commercial, Navy, Globe, King's Arms, Maurice, and Albion.

226 m. from London; 32 m. from Exeter; 24 m. from Launceston; 30 m. from Bodmin; 14 m. from Tavistock; 17 m. from Eddystone Lighthouse; 5 m. from Plymstock; 6 m. from Brickleigh; 9 m. from Buckland Monachorum; 2 m. from Mount Edgcumbe; 5 m. from Rame Head; 4 m. from Saltash; and 11 m. from Whitchurch.

Banks: Branch of Bank of England, Devon and Cornwall Banking Company, Harris and Co., Branch of West of England Bank.

Market-days: Monday and Thursday.]

In the sketch of Plymouth which we are about to attempt, we shall consider it as also including the town of DEVONPORT (population, 50,159. Inns: Royal, London, Crown, and Prince George), and indeed, notwithstanding their independence as parliamentary boroughs and municipalities, they are simply separated by an inlet of Plymouth Sound, bearing the names, successively, of Stonehouse Pool, Stonehouse Lake, and Mill Lake.