. The North Devon coast. rmous walls of water, curvingand advancing with an imperious unhastinggrandeur, you do not wonder that anything lesssolid than the living rock should go down beforethem. The breaking rollers fill the scene with brinyparticles that hang in air like frost and taste salton the lips, and the wind blows strong and in-vigorating from its journey of thousands of milesacross the open sea. An easy path leads from this point aroundCatherine Tor and its waterfall, into a wide moor-like valley where a little stream, fussing noisily inits peaty bed among occasional boulders, hurrie
. The North Devon coast. rmous walls of water, curvingand advancing with an imperious unhastinggrandeur, you do not wonder that anything lesssolid than the living rock should go down beforethem. The breaking rollers fill the scene with brinyparticles that hang in air like frost and taste salton the lips, and the wind blows strong and in-vigorating from its journey of thousands of milesacross the open sea. An easy path leads from this point aroundCatherine Tor and its waterfall, into a wide moor-like valley where a little stream, fussing noisily inits peaty bed among occasional boulders, hurriesalong to join the sea. The scene where this rivu-let, arriving abruptly at the cliffs edge, falls sheerover it, in a long spout of about a hundred feet, isthe most dramatic thing on the coast of NorthDevon. Imagine the lonely valley, not in itselfvery remarkable, suddenly shorn off in a cleancut, disclosing a smooth face of rock as black ascoal, ending in a little beach—and there you haveSpekes Mouth, as it is HARTLAND QUAY 239 From here it is possible to follow the cliffs toWelcombe Mouth : a fatiguing journey. Thequicker way, and also perhaps the more beautiful,is up the valley and into the road ; coming downinto the wooded vale of Welcombe Mouth by azigzag route, amid a tangle of undergrowth. Thevillage of Welcombe, which takes its name froma holy well dedicated to St. Nectan, is marked byits church-tower a mile inland ; the valley itselfbeing solitary, except for one very new and blatantfarmstead. Here, as in all these other valesdipping to the sea, a little stream goes swirlingdown through the tangled brakes of the combe, toend ineffectively on the beach. Welcombe Mouth is associated with the exploitsof Cruel Coppinger, supposed to have been aDanish sea-captain, wrecked off Hartland. Thrownashore in dramatic fashion, and narrowly escapingdeath at the hands of the half-savage Welcombepeople of over a century ago, who nursed oddprejudices against allowing wrecked
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectdevonen, bookyear1908
