. The North Devon coast. ital, to the lighthouse. But the trueinwardness of the Burrows is only to be found bycontinuing straight on past the level crossing,and so into a lane that finally turns to the leftand then loses itself in loose sand. There is a world of desolation in BrauntonBurrows, and he who would thus come, overland,to the queer lighthouse that is perched at theseaward end of the estuary of the river Taw, mustneeds quest doubtfully and with some physicaldiscomfort, before reaching that point where thewaste of shifting sand slopes down to the waves. 150 THE NORTH DEVON COAST Just a
. The North Devon coast. ital, to the lighthouse. But the trueinwardness of the Burrows is only to be found bycontinuing straight on past the level crossing,and so into a lane that finally turns to the leftand then loses itself in loose sand. There is a world of desolation in BrauntonBurrows, and he who would thus come, overland,to the queer lighthouse that is perched at theseaward end of the estuary of the river Taw, mustneeds quest doubtfully and with some physicaldiscomfort, before reaching that point where thewaste of shifting sand slopes down to the waves. 150 THE NORTH DEVON COAST Just as no one becomes irreclaimably wicked inone plunge, but descends irretrievably by a seriesof slight moral lapses, so does the unwary travellercome by degrees into the baffling sand-wreaths ofthe Burrows. A good riverside road from Braun-ton village by degrees becomes an indifferentroad ; then, ceasing to be a road of any kind,becomes a more and more sandy lane, which, inits turn, insensibly degenerates to a track, and—. BRAUNTON BURROWS. there you are ! You must not, however, imaginethis sandy waste to be without its own pecuharbeauties, or barren of vegetation. The windshave blown the immense accumulation of shiftingsand into fantastic hummocks and weird hollows,where the dry surface is ribbed by their eddies,just as the retreating tide ribs the wet sand of theshore ; but here and there coarse grasses havetaken root and achieved the seemingly impossibletask of anchoring the elusive substance : crown-ing the ridges with a wan growth ; and in some BRAUNTON BURROWS 151 sheltered hollows, where the wind comes scourmgwith less insistence, there are nurseries of prettywild flowers which, although the unskilled ex-plorer knows it not, are botanical treasures, someof them sought almost vainly elsewhere. Matsand patches of candytuft form exquisite carpet-ings, the wild pansy blooms abundantly, and inJuly, beautiful above all else, the intense blue ofborage competes vigorously with th
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectdevonen, bookyear1908
