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Descending by the precipitous wall which bounds Tavycleaves, we gaze upward on the scene, and still it wears new forms of grandeur. The "Great Tor" discovers itself wreathed with mist; similar tors embrace the valley on all sides, and at their foot the torrent rushes, mingling its roar with the melancholy sigh of the mountain breeze. An adventurous party once traced the Tavy from this place to its source. There were many slips in their perilous scramble, and many bogs obstructed their way; but the wanderers accomplished their purpose, and saw the stream swell out from the fountainhead near Cranmere pool. We have been informed that the most accessible pathway to Tavy-Cleaves, is by following the Okehampton road, and crossing it at Black-down.

Visitors may vary their route by going by Hill-bridge, and returning over the down.

EXCURSION THE FOURTH.

BANKS OF THE TAMAR, COTHELE, PENTILLIE, &c.

We are bound

On a delightful voyage, and such scenes
Await us, as the memory well may hold

While life retains a pulse.-The surging snake
Has not more folds than Tamar.-

CARRINGTON.

NE of the most agreeable excursions in the neighborhood of Tavistock, is a sail on the Tamar, in the direction of Plymouth. The

tide must be consulted to suit an early hour for a long day of pleasure. The gallant bark of a wellknown friend has often wafted a merry party along this favored stream. I remember the joy felt at rising at some unconscionable hour in the morning, to be in due season at the breakfast table of our generous host. Then the anxious inquiries respecting the state of the weather; the constant reference to the tell-tale watches; anon the driving and galloping eight long miles, to be in time for a seven-o'clock breakfast. This meal despatched in haste, all the party sally forth through pleasant shrubberies, and green fields, and shady woods, to the water's edge, and there floats the gay little boat, with its crew of honest sailors, who welcome the new comers

with their hearty, good-humored smiles. "Time and tide wait for no man," and all take their allotted places in haste, while the men raise the sail, or ply their oars, to propel the well laden bark. The pleasant vicinity of Calstock first attracts the attention.

"Sublimely seated on yon airy ridge,

High peering o'er the woods, the village church
Lifts to the cloud its venerable tower."

The rising woods and fertile gardens, and cherry orchards of Harewood have given place to strawberry beds, which in this warmly situated spot, slope down to the water's edge. Soon after, the graceful windings of the stream bring the leafy promontory of Cothele in view. On the nearer side is a valley, which runs for a considerable way between the bending woods. This small vale or Coombe gives its name to the eldest son of the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, Lord Valletort. The latter part of the name evidently refers to the crooked nature of the coombe, whose extent is unknown to the passing spectator, owing to its devious course amidst the wooded hills, It is said that when the Danes invaded this part of the country, they landed their forces in this coombe, and proceeded to Hengist-down, where they met in fierce encounter the opposing Saxons. From this circumstance it derives the name of Danescoombe. After the battle the Danes proceeded to Tavistock and burnt the Abbey. A small quay at Cothele affords a commodious landing to those who choose to visit the fine old mansion embosomed in

its groves of majestic trees. The house is about a mile from the quay, but the toiling ascent is shortened by the admiration which is necessarily awakened by the extraordinary beauty of the over-arching foliage. If the lower road be taken, the stranger pauses to observe one enormous Spanish Chesnut, which has proudly withstood the withering effects of Time. "It is thirty-one feet in circumference, and the trunk rises seven or eight feet

before it separates into three branches, each the size of a large tree." Many other monarchs of the forest excite equal sensations of pleasure, and we wander on in communion with these ever-renewed relics of the past, until a small chapel in our way diverts the course of our meditations. If we are fortunate enough to have obtained the key by the means of a messenger to the steward at Cothele, we enter the small sanctuary, and find from an inscription, that it was erected to commemorate the escape of Sir Richard Edgcumbe (an ancestor of the present Earl of Mount Edgcumbe) from the emissaries of Richard the Third.

"The gallant chief,

Pursued by usurpation's blood-hounds roamed
In his own woods an exile."

Sir Richard had been a zealous partizan of the Earl of Richmond; he was knighted at Bosworth field, and was appointed by Henry 7th comptroller of the Household, he had also a grant of Sir Henry Bodrugan's valuable estates, and the whole honor of Totness in Devonshire, forfeited by Lord Zouche. There is nothing in the appearance of the chapel to recommend it; tradition alone can render it of any note. A picture represents Sir Richard on his knees returning thanks for his escape, and a votive tablet opposite on the wall, in old English, bears testimony to this memorable event.

Leaving this little white-washed sanctuary which overhangs the river, we ascend a precipitous path which leads to the ancient mansion-house. There it is, with its shaven green, and mouldering paling, and handsome turretted gateway, commanding a large court-yard, around which runs a continued line of substantial stone buildings. How solemn and deserted is its straight unbroken path which leads to the stately hall door! And yet the good taste of the owner of this place, (the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe,) has preserved the original fabric in perfect.

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