PLEASANT NIGHT TRAVELLING. 31 little place, reached Sidmouth at a late hour, when its inhabitants were peacefully reclined on their beds : Tempus erat quo prima quies mortalibus ægris "Twas in the dead of night, when sleep repairs We soon, however, got access into the house of our friend, a gentleman of respectability, who entertained us with his accustomed hospitality. I cannot help remaking with what different sensations we travel after sun-set in those parts of the country which are remote from the Metropolis. Neither footpad nor highwayman haunted our imaginations. The darkness of the night, and the retiredness of the roads, would, in the vicinity of a great city, conspire for our destruction. Whereas here we were only exposed to the dangers incident to night-travelling, and of course were better able to secure our personal safety. In this respect the Country reminds us of the golden age, when Innocence and Peace joined hand-in-hand to render men happy; whilst the huge over-grown metropolis nourishes in her bosom miscreants of every description; whence they issue with desperate intentions, the pest and disgrace of society! Laws, human and divine, are insufficient to restrain them. Every returning winter invites these men to the perpetration of deeds of violence. We are fearful of walking abroad-we are not suffered to rest 32 CITY AND COUNTRY. quiet in our habitations. Whatever boasted advantages, therefore, Cities may possess-for peace, quietness, and safety, give me some retired spot in the Country. And why this essential difference? Man made the Town-God made the Country! COWPER. In my next epistle I shall send you an account of Sidmouth and its vicinity.—I remain, Yours respectfully. VIEW OF THE SEA. 33 LETTER III. FIRST SIGHT OF THE SEA; DESCRIPTION OF SIDMOUTH, BY A FRIEND; ITS POSITION; ITS TRADE; ITS HISTORY; ITS HEALTHY AND DELIGHTFUL SITUATION; THE OCEAN DESCRIBED BY DERHAM; CAUSES OF THE SALTNESS OF THE SEA CONSIDERED BY THE BISHOP OF LANDAFF; SEA, CONSIDERED IN A MORAL POINT OF VIEW, A RICH SOURCE OF IMPROVEMENT. DEAR SIR, HAVING in my last two Epistles delineated my route to Sidmouth, I now proceed to give you an account of this place and its vicinity. Of late years it has become the resort of genteel persons during the summer season. But at a former period it used to offer the valetudinarian, in addition to the softness of the sea-breezes, all the pleasures of retirement. The friend who had admitted us beneath his hospitable roof, possessed a spot remarkable for the neatness of its appearance and the felicity of its situation. I eagerly availed myself of the light of the ensuing day, to ascertain the nature of the place whither I had arrived amid the shades of midnight darkness. The house I found was inclosed by a garden, highly cultivated, abounding with fruit, and furnishing a prospect both of the ocean and of the surrounding country. The scene had all the gloss of novelty: At one of its extremities lay a summer-house, into which we ascended. by a flight of steps, and from which THE SEA burst upon the eye of the spectator with uncom- $4 VIEW OF THE SEA. mon grandeur. Its hoarse resounding murmurs were even thence distinctly heard by the listening ear and struck with the contemplation of so immense a body of water, I was ready to exclaim with Thomson : And, THOU, majestic main, A world of secret wonders in thyself, Sound his stupendous praise, whose greater voice Much pains have been lately taken by our critics in tracing out some of the finest lines in the British Poets, to passages in the ancient classics. May not the above quotation, I mean the latter part, be said to resemble a passage in Horacewith this difference only, that the Roman Bard has assigned to a particular wind what the British Poet has much more sublimely applied to the Supreme Being: Quo non arbiter Adriæ Major, tollere seu ponere vult freta! Nor the loud Tyrant of the western main Instead of attempting to describe Sidmouth with my own pen, I will present you with an account obligingly drawn up by my friend, the Rev. Mr. H-s, who accompanied me in this journey. His residence at the place for many years, joined to the inquisitive turn of mind which he is known to possess, well fitted him for the delineation. It "Sidmouth is seated at the bottom of the immense bay which is formed by the two noted headlands, Portland Point and the Start Point. was, formerly, a place of considerable note, and possessed an ample harbour for shipping, and an extensive trade: but such have been the encroachments of the ever restless ocean upon this part of our coasts, that its port is now lost, and its trade annihilated. Different geographers, speaking of this place, tell us that its harbour is now choaked up by sand; but this is palpably an inaccuracy, as the harbour was certainly not formed by any inlet of the sea, and consequently could not be filled up by the accumulation of marine substances. The fact is, the land to the westward of the town, formerly projected far beyond its present boundary into the sea, and probably formed a Bight-Bay, or natural pier, within which vessels sought refuge in time of danger. This supposition is the more plausible, as immense rocks are now seen at low water, stretching far from the point just mentioned, in a southern direction, and pointing out to the observing eye an eligible basis for the re-erection of such a work: nay, more, there are those who can recollect a chain of rocks similar to the very picturesque one which yet rears its head and defies the buffetings of the waves, which followed each other to the southward, till they were lost in the depths of the ocean! But though no trace of the port now remains, and even the remembrance of it is swept away by the tide of time, this is by no means the case with |