A ring of flame, from the phosphorescence she stirred as she waded into the water, encircled her waist, and, as she looked down into the waves, every shell that crawled on the white sand was visible under the moonbeams, while the seaweeds waved like banners. Almost determined to turn and flee she, with an effort, dipped her head three times in the water, hurried out of the waves, and, looking through the strands of her wet hair into the mirror she carried, repeated the verse the white witch had taught her:
A maiden pure, lo! here I stand, Neither on sea, nor yet on land; Angels watch me on either hand. If you be landsman, come down the strand; If you be sailor, come up the sand; If you be angel, come from the sky, Look in my glass, and pass me by. Look in my glass, and go from the shore; Leave me, but love me for evermore.
It was with a not unnatural superstitious fear, under these magical moonlit circumstances that, even as she was gazing into the mirror and repeating those lines, hurried footsteps were heard descending to the Mouth. They were not, however, angelic or demoniac apparitions nor even earthly lovers: merely fugitive Jesuits and traitors.
It is sad to find this scene overlooked by those hideous stuccoed houses on the ridge, but, at any rate, as I straddle the little summer-time trickle of the stream in the bottom, dividing Devon and Cornwall, I cannot but admire the fine note of picturesqueness and high romance on which this coast-line ends.
Barnstaple, 27, 29, 30, 86, 113, 115, 154–72, 208
Clovelly, 2, 90, 99, 100, 113, 190, 205–26
Kingsley, Charles, 72, 96, 138, 176–8, 181, 189, 190, 198, 201, 202, 224, 241
“Pack of Cards” (“King’s Arms”), Combemartin, 72, 73, 80
PRINTED AND BOUND BY HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD LONDON AND AYLESBURY.
Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced quotation marks retained.
Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained; occurrences of inconsistent hyphenation have not been changed.
Some entries in the original List of Illustrations indicated that the illustration was “facing” a page. Those indications have been removed here, as all illustrations have been positioned between nearby paragraph breaks.