Parson and Clerk Rocks, Dawlish

Four miles farther on, in a little bay walled-in by lofty cliffs of deep red sandstone, is Dawlish, noted for its warm climate and its good sands. At the eastern end of the bay is a rock called the Langstone, and at the western end are the strange-looking pillars of red sandstone known as the Parson and Clerk. Teignmouth lies rather more than two miles S.S.W. of Dawlish, with picturesque red cliffs and firm sands all the way, at the mouth of the estuary of the river Teign, whose swiftly-flowing stream is here crossed by one of the longest wooden bridges in England. It is a small port and a very popular watering-place, with beautiful inland scenery behind it, and inside the Den—the dune or sand-bank which bars a great part of the river's mouth—is a good harbour for vessels of light draught. Teignmouth is one of the towns that in the past have suffered from the attacks of the French, who burnt it in 1347 and again in 1690.

Anstis Cove, near Torquay

Four miles south of the estuary of the Teign is Babbacombe Bay, in whose beautiful cliffs of red and grey is some of the richest colouring on the whole coast. The paler-toned cliffs round the picturesque little inlet of Anstis Cove are of limestone. Half a mile farther is the prominent cape called Hope's Nose, the northern limit of Torbay, and a spot of much interest to the geologist on account of the raised sea-beach which, at a height of some thirty feet above the present high tide-line, may be traced under the headland, and also, at a lower level, on the Thatcher Rock. Among the marine shells of the latter deposit is Trophon truncatus, an arctic species, whose presence here is another proof that the climate of Devonshire was once far colder than it is now.

Torquay from Vane Hill

Torbay, which extends from Hope's Nose on the north to Berry Head on the south—two prominent headlands nearly five miles apart—is one of the best known and most beautiful bays on the coast of England. In all except easterly winds it affords an excellent anchorage which was much used by ships of the Royal Navy in the old sailing days, and it is still a great yachting station. At the northern end of the bay, occupying, it is said, more ground in proportion to its population than any other town in the island, is the much frequented watering-place of Torquay, widely celebrated for the beauty of its situation and the mildness of its winter climate. Along the whole coast of Torbay, at a level which shows that the land has sunk some forty feet, lies a submerged forest, in which have been found bones of the wild boar, red-deer antlers, and mammoth's teeth. But proofs of an elevation on a still greater scale are to be found in the borings of sea-shells in the limestone cliffs above Kent's Cavern, within the limits of the town, at a height of 200 feet above the present sea level.

Half-way along the shore of Torbay is Paignton, another favourite seaside resort, famous for its fine beach, and on a steep slope at the head of an inlet rather more than a mile before coming to Berry Head stands Brixham, a town second only in importance to Plymouth among the fishing-stations of the south coast of England. Here, on the 5th of November, 1688, the Prince of Orange landed. And here, six weeks after the Battle of Waterloo, the Bellerophon anchored, with Napoleon Buonaparte a prisoner on board.

Brixham

Beyond Berry Head, which forms the end of a broad promontory, worn at its base into many caves, and noted for its quarries, there extends for many miles—all the way, in fact, to the mouth of the Dart—a stretch of very beautiful coast-line, with low but finely-coloured cliffs of sandstone and limestone and slate, varying in tint from red to purple, and from brown to grey, with a series of sandy bays and fringed by outlying rocks, two of which are called Mewstones. One of these, standing just where the coast sweeps round to the estuary of the Dart, is a lofty pinnacle of stone more than 100 feet high. Well inside the mouth of the Dart, on the steep slope of its left or eastern entrance, is the quaint little town of Kingswear; and opposite to it, on the western shore, lies Dartmouth, once a noted port, but now only a favourite yachting station. The old man-of-war, the Britannia, anchored here close to land and long used as a training-ship, has been superseded by a naval college on shore, and is now used only as a store. Dartmouth is a place of much historic interest. It was from here that part of Richard Coeur de Lion's crusading fleet sailed for Palestine. The port furnished thirty-one ships towards Edward III's attack on Calais. Twice, in the half century that followed, it was plundered by the French. It played a prominent part in the Civil War, and was taken first by Prince Maurice, and afterwards by Fairfax.

The “Britannia” and “Hindostan” in Dartmouth Harbour

Between the mouth of the Dart and Start Point, nine miles as the crow flies, is Start Bay, walled for about half its length with low and quiet-coloured cliffs of slate, and fringed in great part with sand and shingle. At Blackpool, a picturesque little cove near the northern end of the bay, du Chastel the Breton landed, in 1404, on a pillaging expedition, for the plundering was not all on the side of the English. But the Frenchman was killed, with 400 of his men, and 200 more were taken prisoners. Half-way along the shore of Start Bay are Slapton Sands, where a beach of small and brightly-coloured pebbles and a bank of shingle separate the long and narrow lake called Slapton Ley from the waters of the Channel. Off this spot, marked by two beacons on the shore, is the spot, "measured mile" for testing the speed of steamships. Not far from Slapton the coast rises again, and above the fishing villages of Hallsands and Beesands, which stand at the water's edge, reaches a height of some hundreds of feet. The people of these two little hamlets train powerful dogs, which, in rough weather, swim out through the surf, catch the painters thrown to them and thus enable the fishing-boats to be dragged ashore.

Start Point, or, as it is perhaps more often called, the Start, is one of the famous capes of Britain, a bold headland sloping steeply both ways, like the roof of a house; whose iron base, fringed with white quartz pebbles; has been the scene of many shipwrecks, and whose dark cliffs and rugged crags are haunted by multitudes of sea-birds. The cliffs of this part of Devon, from the Start round Prawle Point and Bolt Head to Bolt Tail—cliffs whose grey rock, relieved by bands of white quartz, has been bent and twisted by volcanic upheaval, and weathered by rain and frost, by wind and sea, into the wildest and most fantastic shapes—are as remarkable for picturesqueness of form as other parts are for richness of colouring. Three miles beyond the Start is Prawle Point, a magnificent mass of jagged rock, the most southerly point in the county, and a well-known steering-mark for ships in the Channel. It was off this shore, in 1793, that the English ship Nymphe captured the French man-of-war ClÉopatre; the first naval battle in the struggle between England and the French Republic. Between Prawle Point and Bolt Head is Salcombe Mouth, a creek rather than an estuary; a long, winding, and picturesque inlet, whose entrance is obstructed by a bank of sand. Trunks of oak and other trees, from a submerged forest not far from land, are sometimes thrown ashore here after rough weather. To the west of Salcombe stands Bolt Head, of no great height, but a noble mass of rugged and weather-worn rock. Beyond the Head the coast rises into steep and lofty cliffs, culminating in Bolt Tail, close under whose eastern face, in 1760, the 74-gun ship Ramillies was lost, with more than 700 of her crew. A gun recovered from the wreck lies by the Hope signal-station, on the height above. These cliffs have been much broken away by landslips; and a series of fissures called the Pits suggest that much more ground is still to fall.

Round Bigbury Bay, of which Bolt Tail is the eastern limit, is some of the most beautiful scenery of this beautiful coast. A striking feature of the bay is a great rock called the Thurlestone, an outlying mass of red sandstone, conspicuous against the general greyness of the cliffs, and pierced by a lofty archway, worn by wind and sea. Two estuaries, the Avon Mouth and the Erme Mouth, break the coast-line of the bay; and there is a third, called Yealm Mouth, near the entrance of Plymouth Sound, a couple of miles beyond the grand slate headland of Stoke Point. Outside the Avon Mouth is Borough Island, carpeted in spring-time with the beautiful blue of the delicate little vernal squill. The Erme, whose mouth is guarded by rugged cliffs of slate, is strewn with rocks and sandbanks; but the estuary of the Yealm is a fine sheet of deep, navigable water. Standing far out into Wembury Bay, at the mouth of the Yealm, is the third of the Mewstones, a rocky and beautiful little islet, nearly 200 feet high, and frequented, as its name implies, by many sea-gulls.

The Mewstone may be said to mark the eastern side of the entrance of Plymouth Sound, one of the best known, most important, and most beautiful bays in the kingdom. It is by nature fully exposed to southerly winds, and it has, in the past, been the scene of many shipwrecks. But the breakwater, which was built in the early half of the nineteenth century right across it, two miles south of Plymouth Hoe, with the special object of sheltering ships of the Royal Navy, now affords a safe and excellent anchorage. Nearer the shore is Drake's Island, now strongly fortified, but in Stuart times a State prison, where Lambert, one of the most distinguished of Parliamentary generals, spent the last eighteen years of his life.

At the head of the Sound, on its eastern side, is the inlet called the Catwater, the estuary of the river Plym, an important mercantile anchorage, protected by Batten breakwater. It was here that the English Fleet waited until the Spanish Armada, on its way up the Channel, had passed the entrance of the Sound.

Between the Catwater and the Hamoaze, the great naval anchorage which extends from the Sound to Saltash Bridge, are the "Three Towns," Plymouth, Stonehouse, and Devonport, now joined into one by continuous buildings, forming the busiest and most populous part of the county, and constituting, with their dockyards, barracks, gun-wharves, and victualling yards, one of the most important stations of the Royal Navy.