tailed and clamped with irons to the rocks below and to each other.

It has stood for more than one hundred years, sending its light out a distance of fourteen miles; and the event has proved that the foundations were firmer than the very rock they were raised on. The sea has beaten against the rock beneath the building until it is nearly worn away; the old lighthouse must come down, and a new one is being built at a stronger point.

ས.

THE DART AND TORBAY.

THE Dart, with its rapid course and sudden bends, deserves its name (which, however, is derived from the Celtic word Dur, which means river); these sharp turns make it look like a chain of lakes, for bit after bit of the river seems to be shut in by land. It begins on the moor, flows, a mountain torrent, through rocky defiles, through the ancient oak forest of Holne Chase, past quiet Ashburton and old Totnes. The valley becomes more fair and fertile as it reaches the sea; rich meadows, studded with trees, and apple orchards border the banks of the river, and at its mouth is the ancient town of Dartmouth, with its projecting upper stories.

Dartmouth fishers were among the first who went after Newfoundland cod, and Sir Humphrey Gilbert who took that island for Queen Elizabeth was a Dartmouth man.

Torbay, a beautiful bay with blood-red cliffs, lies between the Dart valley and that of the Teign. Torquay is under its north headland; it is a pleasant bathing

EXETER AND THE OTTER VALLEY.

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place, with a mild climate, where delicate people winter. Brixham, to the south of the bay, is a fishing town, the place of the Devonshire trawlers, who catch whiting, haddock, and other fish in a net about seventy feet long, shaped like a bag, with a beam at the mouth, which they trawl or drag along the bottom.

Most memorable in the history of Torbay are those July days of 1588, when the great war ships of the Spanish Armada ventured slowly past Berry Head. The little English ships, under the valiant "sea-dogs of Queen Elizabeth, dashed in and out among them, sinking one or two, disabling many, firing a broadside and away again before the big Spaniards had time to turn round; while the English people stood in crowds watching and praying upon the shore.

The most famous of Elizabeth's captains were Devon men; Sir Francis Drake, who was the first to sail through Magellan's Straits and round the world, attacking the Spaniards everywhere; Frobisher; Sir John Hawkins; Sir Humphrey Gilbert, the "most learned and pious of them all"; and, not least, Sir Walter Raleigh, his half-brother.

Farther north is Teignmouth, a large watering-place at the mouth of the Teign.

VI.

EXETER AND THE OTTER VALLEY.

EXETER, the Queen of the West, stands on the Exe; a city on a hill, and with hills around it. The cathedral with its two high old towers built after the Norman fashion, was the work of the Normans.

Crediton, where shoes are made, and Tiverton, where there are lace mills, are higher up in the Exe valley. Dawlish, in a sheltered valley, and Exmouth, on a hill, are two bathing-places near the mouth of the estuary.

This

The beautiful and costly Honiton lace, the manufacture for which Devonshire is most famous, is made chiefly in the Otter Valley. It is a snug valley, sheltered by hills on each side, well-wooded hills, from whose tops the pink marble of Devon crops up. The cottages lie among the orchards, and the lace-makers may be seen at work at their cottage doors. delicate fabric is made altogether by hand. The lacemaker sits on a stool with a hard cushion on her lap; the pattern is sketched on a piece of parchment which is laid upon the cushion; pins are put through the pattern to mark it, and the worker forms the mesh and makes the pattern with many small bobbins on which threads are wound, fine threads for the meshes, coarse for the pattern. Though the lace is costly, it takes so long to make it that the workers are not very well paid.

Lace is made in the numerous lanes which wind about Budleigh Salterton, a delightful little wateringplace, set in apple orchards; it is also made in the large red village of Otterton, in Ottery St. Mary, and in most of the villages in this neighbourhood. It is sent to Honiton or to Exeter for sale. Colyton, on the Axe, is another lace-making place. Axminster, on this river, was once a famous carpet-making place, but its trade has declined.

The vale of Honiton is as famous for its butter as for its lace; there, and in the Exe valley, the best Devonshire cream and butter are made.

1. What counties does Devon lie between? What waters wash it on the north? on the south?

2. What moor occupies the west of the county? Name two or three of the highest Tors. Name the three longest rivers which rise in the moor and flow south. Into what estuary do the Plym and the Tamar fall? What town stands on this opening? Two other towns join Plymouth-na -name them.

3. What is the southern corner of Devon called? Name the port at the mouth of the Dart. Another town on this river among the hills. Name the watering-places north and south of Torbay. What is the southern headland of the bay called? What town stands at the mouth of the Teign?

4. In what moor does the Exe take its rise? Name five towns upon this river. Name three towns in the valley of the little river Otter. Two in the valley of the Axe.

5. Name four towns on the north coast, among the Exmoor Hills. What river rising in Dartmoor flows north? What town stands at its mouth? Name two towns on the Torridge. A town near Hartland Point. What island lies beyond Barnstaple Bay?

SOMERSET.

I.

SOMERSET is a wide county stretching along the Bristol Channel. It is a land of hill and vale, but the vales are broader than those of Devon, and the hills do not rise out of one high moor, but are scattered in ranges here and there over the county. Somerset, the name given to this district by the Saxons, means “the pleasant country," and, next to Devon, it is the prettiest county in the west, and has a fertile soil and a delightful climate.

The surface of the county is greatly varied. Going eastward from North Devon to Wilts, we crossExmoor, a continuation of the North Devon moorland; the hilly country between the Quantocks and Blackdowns; the fertile hollow or Dean of Taunton; the low marshy Somerset levels; the rugged Mendip district, and the Avon valley in which Bath stands.

The Somerset, or, as they would call themselves, "Zummerzet" folk, are generally farmers, and good farmers too. Many jokes are made about the way the people speak; they turn "s" into "z," and "f" into "v," and have words which are not used in other parts of England; but many of these are real old English words.