Page:010 Once a week Volume X Dec 1863 to Jun 64.pdf/681

 11, 1864.]

Hartland Point, North Devon.

Monday morning we were up with the sun to finish a little sketch we were taking of the pier. Clovelly is a place you are very sorry to leave, your interest in it increases every day, and if you want to add some choice bits to your portfolio, you will find fresh subjects at every turn: old houses, shipping, everything seems put together in its most picturesque form. But we had decided to leave, and after breakfast started with our knapsacks for Hartland. There is a way by road to the town of Hartland, but we were going to Hartland Point first, and took the route through Clovelly Park, by the lower road which leads to Mouth Mill. If any of our friends are fond of the much despised race of fungi, in the woods about here they will meet with many interesting specimens. We passed some old logs, which had apparently been lying there for years, from which we gathered some fine specimens of Bulgaria inquinans, and choice kinds of Peziza and Clavaria may be discovered with a little trouble, while the brilliant heads of many of the commoner kinds of Agaricus and Boletus peeped out from amongst the dead leaves. It was a showery morning, and we were glad to take refuge for half an hour in the mill; the miller and his wife, a worthy couple, treated us most hospitably; if the reader should chance to pass that way and is hungry, he must not forget to ask the miller’s wife for some of her home-made cakes, which with fresh butter and milk he will find very acceptable. Here, too, all the directions necessary for going to Hartland Point may be had; the miller will, on a little bit of slate, mark out the road and show the turns to be taken; this little map is needed, for the cross roads are perplexing. We were rather independent, and fancied our pocket compass was guide enough, but we should have done better if we had accepted the offered help. The rain over, we walked down to the shore to see the curious arched rocks close by. It was high tide, and the sea was dashing up gloriously, the waves