The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1875-06-10
The West OF England.

Where shall one find q better region in
which to take a holiday one lovelier to
the eye, richer in historic and poetic in
terest and memories? and in air so per-
fumed and soft that Sydney Smith, coming
hither from that famous Yorkshire par
sonage to settle at Combe-Florey,
declared the very principles of the
family were relaxing and melting out of
them.
Here are remains of BritOn and Ro-
man, Druid and early Christians, distinct
traces of the food, old churches and
abbeys; here King Alfred burnt the
cakes, had his summer palace, and here
his fish-ponds may still be seen; here
saints and poets, warriors and old chron-
iclers, to whose names and deeds we have
thrilled since childhood, were born, lived
and came to peaceful or violent ending;
here is the Arthurian region, all tremu-
lous with romance, and populOus with
famous shadows; here are gentle-swelling
hills shutting in still, primitive wales,
rugged cliffs with savage passes, chasms
rising abruptly from Orchard-shaded
plains veined with network of brook,
rivers, and sweet with myriad cottage
gardens, where snap-dragOn, gilliHowers,
and carnations bloom, and bees hum
around their weather-stained straw
hives here are boslly highwr IS and by
ways, fluent, unhurried, lille the soft,
drawling speech of the West-ofEngland
folks; here passion flower and myrtle
grow unprotected; fuchsia trees higher
than ones head brave the worst that
winter can do, and ivies climb, hazels
flourish, and flowers crowd down to the
very lip of the sea.
In Zummerzet, down by the Zee, then,
establishing ourselves at that Brighton
ofthe west" Weston-super-Mere, whence
we easily made our excursions near and
far, on foot, by carriage, and by rail. A
cleanly, bright, CHEEKY little pleasure re-
sort is Weston, lying on the Bristol chan
mel, and breezy as mountain top; for
the water rises in the channel here forty
five feet, and runs at the rate of four or
five miles an hour, so that every incom-
ing tide must bring with it a gale to
sweep pier and esplanade, and whirl
through and through the rows of stately
lodging-houses, making them pure
breathed spite all lodging-house instincts.
When the tide recedes the water ebbs,
and ebbs, and ebbs, as if the very sea
were to be drained dry, and for hours
the whole harbor is but grotesgue
stretch of mud; but tits fine, crescent
shaped three-mile-long beach, safe as
house floor, and the very paradise of ba-
bies and children. They are trotting over
it on donkeys, rolling on it, digging in
it, covering it with formidable earth
works. wells, trenches, with many labori-
ous journeys filling these with sea water
themselves; boys and girls, as nearly un-
impeded by trousers and petticoats as
they can manage; their shoes and stock
ings slung over their shoulders; their
round legs red and dripping, their gar.
ments much encumbered with the sand
and seaweed of their amphibious career;
while year-old babies are crawling wildly
about among them, rods away from their
nurses, who look on, or do not look OH.
as unconcernedly as if this were but
Brobdignagian nursery in Utopia, where
mischance, whether grivous or light,
could not possibly befall.-The GALAXY.