surpassed in extent of area by Yorkshire and Lincolnshire alone. It is rich in pasture-land, and in its breed of gracefully formed deer-like oxen. The Red Devon' frequently bears away first prizes at cattle-shows. Its geological structure is remarkable. For botanic study it affords a wide and deeply-interesting field; and by its venerable outspreading oaks, mingled with loftier trees of lighter forms and foliage, as well as by floral productions and varieties of ferns and grasses, it is richly attractive to the admirers of the vegetable adornment of hills, lanes, and valleys. In picVOL. I. THIRD SERIES.-JANUARY, 1877. A 2 In turesque beauty and grandeur it has rare charms for the tourist. Its surface is diversified with innumerable heights and hollows. some parts rugged granite breaks upward with towering peaks, amidst dark morasses, presenting scenes sternly wild and forlorn ; and in others, rich green pasture-land spreads its carpet over the red earth; while on both its northern and southern coasts the grey limestone or red sandstone cliffs are romantically hollowed out with bays and coves, wooded down to the sea, and festooned, in many instances, with creepers of every variety of form and colour. The productions and attractive features of Devonshire have become more known of late, and it now draws to it summer visitors from all sections of the kingdom. Historically, also, the county is surpassingly interesting. The ancient Britons long kept their hold of it against foreign invaders; antiquities, such as cromlechs, sacred circles, logans, rock-basins, caves, stone-huts, with the remains of hill castles and camps of earth-work, some of which are of vast dimensions, tell of pre-historic times; while remnants of roads, buildings, and other works of the Roman, Norman, and Medieval periods are numerous. Devonshire took a prominent part in maritime enterprise under Queen Elizabeth, distinguished itself in opposition to Charles and the Long Parliament, welcomed to its shore the Prince of Orange when he landed with banners inscribed, 'For God and the Protestant religion.' It was professedly Christian before Romish emissaries crossed its borders. It allied itself early with the Protestant Reformation, and has continued onwards steadfast in the Truth. Commercially, too, it is important. On the south-eastern side it has its ports and harbours-valuable to Government, as also to the shipping interests of the nation; while its fisheries on both its coasts send abundant supplies to the fish-markets of London and other towns and cities of the country. As restorative to invalids, especially those suffering from debility and pulmonary complaints, it is unsurpassed by any other region of Great Britain, and in many instances is recommended by medical men rather than the coasts of the Mediterranean. It enjoys a serene, equable climate, subdued and tempered by the sea, with sheltered bays; while its mingled forms and colours of greensward, grey limestone, and overrunning foliage, soothe, as far as lovely scenery can do so, the lassitude and depression of ill health. This is more especially realised at Torquay and its immediate neighbourhood, now the winter resort of invalids from all parts of England. But by far the most strikingly picturesque portion of the county is North Devon.' Not to dwell upon the rugged wild grandeur of Dartmoor hills or the Exmoor forests, the scenes on the coast of the Bristol Channel are exceedingly charming and inspiring. WESTWARD HO! has been made familiar by Canon Kingsley in his volume bearing that title. He says: 'Torbay is a place which should be as much endeared to the naturalist as to the patriot and to the artist. We cannot gaze on its blue ring of water, and the great limestone bluffs which bound it to the north and south, without a glow passing through our hearts, as we remember the terrible and glorious pageant which passed by in the glorious July days of 1588, when the Spanish Armada ventured slowly past Berry Head, with Elizabeth's gallant pack of Devon captains following fast in the wake, and dashing into the midst of the vast line, undismayed by size and numbers, while their kin and friends stood watching and praying on the cliffs, spectators of Britain's Salamis. The white line of houses, too, on the other side of the bay, is Brixham, famed as the landing-place of William of Orange; the stone on the pier-head which marks his first footsteps on British ground, is sacred in the eyes of all true English Whigs; and close by stands the castle of the settler of Newfoundland, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Raleigh's half-brother, most learned of all Elizabeth's admirals, in life most pious, and heroic in death. And as for scenery, though it can boast of neither mountain-peak nor dark fiord, and would seem tame enough in the eyes of a western Scot or Irishman, yet Torbay surely has a soft beauty of its own. The rounded hills slope gently to the sea, spotted with squares of emerald grass and rich red fallow fields, and parks full of stately timber trees. Long lines of tall elms, just flushing green in the spring hedges, run down to the very water's edge, their boughs unwarped by any blast; and here and there apple orchards are just bursting into flower in the soft sunshine, and narrow strips of water-meadow line the glens, where the red cattle are already lounging knee-deep in richest grass, within ten |