Clovelly has been thought by some to have a Roman origin, and its name to derive3 from Clausa Vallis. The ingenuity4 of this derivation compels our admiring attention, even if it does not win our agreement. Ptolemy styled Hartland Point the “Point of Hercules,” and Barnstaple is thought to have been the Roman Artavia; but no evidence of any kind associates Clovelly with those times. The great triple-ditched prehistoric5 earthworks at Clovelly Cross, where the road down to the village branches from the highway, point to some ancient people having been settled here and greatly concerned to defend the place; but the history of Clovelly Dykes6, or “Ditchens,” as they are called, will never be written. Clovelly’s name almost certainly derives7 from words meaning “the cliff place,” the site of it being amazingly cloven down the face of the steep cliffs that on either hand present a bold front to the sea. The force that carved out this astonishing cleft8 was the same209 that has fashioned the many combes and “mouths” along this coast; an impetuous stream rushing from the inland heights. Indeed, the cobble-stoned stairs that form the footpath9 of Clovelly’s “street,” descending10 hundreds of feet to the beach, now represent what remained until modern times the bed of that streamlet. It poured down210 here from the cliff-top, and the curious overhanging terraces of the “New Inn,” and most of the cottages are survivals of its banks. This stream was diverted half a mile to the east, and now flows through the Hobby Drive and over the face of the cliff at Freshwater Cascade11.
CLOVELLY, FROM THE HOBBY DRIVE.
The population of Clovelly is almost entirely12 seafaring: or rather, the men are fisherfolk, and the men’s wives have for years past found a second string to the domestic bow in letting bedrooms and providing refreshments13 for visitors; so that when circumstances forbid the chase of the herring there is not likely to be that empty cupboard at home, which is apt to vex14 the lives and haunt the imaginations of the fisherfolk of most other seaboard places. What competition there is in this ministering to visitors is necessarily very limited, because Clovelly itself is unexpanding. What it was sixty or seventy years ago, that it remains15 in almost every detail to-day. It is the manorial16 appanage of Clovelly Court, standing17 up in its broad Park on the cliff-top; and has been since the earliest times. In Domesday we find it the property, among innumerable other manors18, of Queen Matilda, wife of William the Conqueror19. Down the centuries occur the names of Giffards, Stantons, and Mandevilles, as owners; and in the reign20 of Richard the Second it became the property of Sir John Cary, by purchase.
The oldest part of the church is Norman, but of those older lords of Clovelly no record survives. They are as though they had never existed. Sir211 Walter Robert Cary is the oldest represented here, on a brass21 dated 1540. Other Carys survive in epitaph: William, who died in 1652, aged22 76, who (it is claimed for him) not only served “three Princes, Queen Elizabeth, King James, and King Charles I.,” but his generation as well; and Sir “Robert Cary, Kt. (Sonne and Heyre of William), gentleman of the Privy23 Chamber24 vnto King Charles II., who, having served faithfully the glorious Prince, Charles I., in the long civil warr against his Rebellious25 subjects, and both him and his sonne as Justice of the Peace, died a Bachelor, in the 65th yeare of his age, An. Dom. 1675. Peritura perituris relique.” And so at last to the Williams family and the Hamlyns.
In the days of those older lords, when the country was thinly populated, travel a penance26, and the delights of the picturesque27 unthought of, Clovelly of course did not grow; and in our own times, now that beauty of situation is an asset and distinctly a factor in the value of land, and projectors28 of railways and hotels are currently reported to have eyes upon desirable sites, the Hamlyns have resisted all offers. So Clovelly will probably long remain unspoiled.
It has two inns, the old “New Inn,” up-along, as we say here, and the “Red Lion,” “down tu kaay”—not, please, “down upon the key,” after the style and pronunciation of the outer world. If one could conceive such a fantastic thing in Clovelly as a street directory, it would consist almost wholly of those features, “Up-along,”212 “Down-along,” North Hill, and Quay. “The New Inn and Hotel,” as it now styles itself, does so with some show of reason, for the original “New Inn”—when it was new I cannot conceive—still stands upon one side of the road, and a really new building has been erected29 opposite: the “Hotel” referred to in the new style, without doubt. There, in the larger rooms of modern ideas, guests breakfast, lunch, or dine, and those unfortunate ones who cannot be accommodated with a bedroom in the old house across the way, sleep. Unfortunate, I say, because at Clovelly one wants to fare after the old style. For years familiar (as thousands of people who have never been to Clovelly must be) with the well-known view of the street showing the “New Inn” and the quaint30 little soldier and sailor mannikins that serve as windmills on its projecting sign, had I cherished a resolution to stay in the old hostelry; and it had now at last come to pass. Up narrow, twisting stairs was my bedroom, looking out, through clusters of roses, upon the street; and being thus gratified in the main object, it was a small matter that I breakfasted and dined in the new building across the way.
“UP-ALONG,” CLOVELLY.
I shall say nothing of the fare of the “New Inn,” except that it is of the best a typically Devonian farm could produce, and what better would you or could you, than that? Both houses, old and new—the old, with its snug31 little old-fashioned bar-parlour, as tiny and as full of corners and cupboards as a ship’s cabin, and the213 new, with its large dining-room—are full to overflowing32 with the most amazing collection of china, old brass candlesticks, kettles, pestles33 and mortars34, and all sorts of old-fashioned domestic utensils35, accumulated in the course of many years at auction36 or private sales. You sit down to table in that dining-room as though you were dining in a china-shop. Some of the china is old and valuable, and a good deal is neither the one nor214 the other. By the odd decoration of the ceiling, representing the British “union Jack” and the U. S. “Old Glory” in amity37, you might suspect—if you did not already know it by the accents of fellow-guests—that the bulk of those who seek the hospitality of the “New Inn” are citizens of the United States; but that is no reason why a Briton should be guilty of such abject38 sentiments as those inscribed39 between the two flags—not “something proud and vain,” as the foremost modern novelist of the servants’-hall might say, but something mean and cringing40, to the effect that it is hoped the United States will always remain friendly and not attack the Mother Country. To how many citizens of the United States is England the Mother Country? This is an age when Americans of British descent are in a minority among a huge population of cosmopolitan41 European immigrants, largely consisting of Russian and German Jews, Hungarians, and Italians. The people of Clovelly, it may be supposed, naturally seeing only those of British descent, are ignorant of that fact. And, as for being the object of attack, if that happened, could we not hold our own?
Meanwhile, the citizens of that Republic who find their way here are delightful42, inasmuch as they themselves are so frankly43 delighted. England is such a new experience to most of them, and, whether it be a New England schoolmarm from Pottsville, or a pork-packing multi-millionaire from Chicago, you can clearly see that he and she215 are as pleased as children. Some of them, too, are na?vely ignorant of quite the most commonplace things. It was on North Hill, and an old fisherman was talking to me and hoeing his garden the while. A very charming girl came along and, looking over the garden wall, said, in the American language, “My! what curious flowers those are. What are they?”
“Them’s tetties, miss,” replied the old man.
She looked puzzled. “Potatoes,” I translated.
And so they were; potatoes in flower. And it was from America that Raleigh introduced the vegetable, over three hundred years ago!
Those transatlantic cousins in summer pervade44 Clovelly. Everywhere you hear it to be “purrfectly lovely,” or “real ullegant,” or may catch some one “allowing” it to be “vurry pretty,” or even a “cunning little place.” Sometimes they rhapsodise; and when they write down their names in the “New Inn” visitors’ book, they write much else in the appreciative sort. I wish my own countrymen were in general as appreciative of the good things in scenery and antiquities45 as the generality of our American visitors—and yet, on second thoughts, I don’t; because we who do love them would be lost in the sudden overwhelming swirl46 of humanity, and the things delightful would be finally spoiled, beyond recall.
SIGN OF THE “NEW INN,” CLOVELLY.
To examine an accumulated pile of those books is to note that at least three-quarters of those who stay here are Americans. “If it were not for them,” they say at the inn in particular, and in216 the village in general, “we could not go on.” A traveller from the United States, with his womenkind, is generally in a hurry, but if he visits Clovelly at all, he is, at any rate, almost certain to stay overnight. Often he comes with a motor-car, left at the stables far above. English holiday-makers, on the other hand, are most largely made up of steamboat excursionists, come for an hour or two. You may see them landing in row-boats, and coming straggling up-along, gazing in wonderment this way and that, and then going off again, quite content with this hurried impression. Not theirs the wish to know what Clovelly is like in early morning, or to witness daylight fade away in that unique street, and the lights of the cottages217 come out, above and below. I need not add that they certainly do not know Clovelly with a full knowledge.
Of those who record their stay in the visitors’ book at the “New Inn,” a large proportion add remarks, and some even indite47 verse. It is not great verse, as witness the following:
Clovelly
“A heaven on earth,
A caustic51 comment upon this by a later traveller shows that not even Clovelly may please all tastes. “My life”—so carps the abandoned wretch—“would be very dreary if I staid here long.”
The soldier and sailor who occupy the projecting signpost of the “New Inn,” and whose arms, revolving52 in the breeze like windmills, are finished off like cricket-bats, have been there just a hundred years, as you may perhaps see from their costumes. They are now held together chiefly by dint53 of many successive coats of paint.
Beneath, coming up or going down, clatter54 the donkeys with their laden55 crooks—the last survivals of the pack-horse era—for wheels are unknown at Clovelly, and whether it be luggage, or coals, or sand, or vegetables to be conveyed, it is some patient, sure-footed “Neddy” that does the carrying, on his long-suffering back. On the way they brush past the218 artists, who are generally to be found calmly seated at their easels in the middle of the thoroughfare; for artists are privileged persons here, and so plentiful56 that no one takes the least notice of them, and no curiosity is ever shown as to whether they be painting well or ill. And every visitor who is not an artist, has a photographic camera of sorts; so that, in one way or another, a good many incorrect representations of Clovelly are taken away in the course of the year.
A CLOVELLY DONKEY.
Halfway57 down to the sea, between this steeply descending line of white houses—every one of them old, except that modern annexe of the “New Inn”—is the sharp turn where a breast-high rough stone wall, commanding view’s over the sea,219 is known as “the Look Out.” Immediately below, the road runs under one of the old houses, called “Temple Bar,” and thereafter goes zigzagging58 “down tu Kaay.”
“TEMPLE BAR.”
The Quay and the Quay pool compose the most miniature of harbours: the quay itself being a small but massive masonry59 pier60, with a lower walk, an upper walk, and a breast-wall, curving out from a narrow strand61. At high tide the water220 off this pier looks so deep, and the waves rage with such fury, that it is with something the effect of a dramatic revelation you find the ebb62 capable of receding63 so far as to leave pier and pool alike quite dry, and the boats all canted at absurd helpless angles.
THE QUAY, CLOVELLY.
Over this little scene, the tall, sheer, tree-fringed cliff of Gallantry Bower64 protrudes65 a sheltering shoulder; the smoke from Clovelly chimneys on still days ascending66 perpendicularly67 against its dark green background, with a comforting, cosy68 sense of snug homesteads, sufficient though humble69. The “Red Lion” stands prominently here, an odd building with something of a Swiss suggestion, and a tunnel through its heavy mass leading to a cobble-stoned courtyard, where you see an upturned221 boat or two, a scatter70 of domestic fowls71 searching for grains, and making shift with seaweed; and perhaps one of those patient, all-enduring little Clovelly donkeys, submitting to be loaded up with a heavy sack by a burly fisherman, who looks distinctly the better able of the two to hump the burden.
BACK OF THE “RED LION,” CLOVELLY.
Along the wall of the “Red Lion,” facing the pool, runs a bench, full in the sun, and there the fishermen of Clovelly sit. They sit there so long222 and so often that they have little conversation: their pipes and the mere72 supporting presence of each other appearing to be quite satisfying. We may not believe altogether in the alleged73 Roman origin of Clovelly, but I saw a fisherman, one of the company on this bench, whose clean-shaven face was the very counterpart of Julius C?sar’s.
Clovelly fishermen are famed for their endurance and Clovelly herrings for their flavour. All through the West the fame of these herrings has gone forth74. Yarmouth and Lowestoft may measure the catch of herring by the “last.” Clovelly reckons so many “maise.” A “maise” is 612, and is arrived at as follows: three herrings make one “cast,” i.e. a handful: fifty cast, with an odd cast thrown in, equal the Scriptural “miraculous draught,” and make one maund, and four maunds equal 612 fish = a “maise.”
Buildings—not merely the old limekiln that looks like a defensible blockhouse, but dwelling-houses also—come down to the very margin75 of “Kaay pule”: in particular the strangely picturesque cottage, with balcony perilously76 strutted77 out from its walls, known as “Crazy Kate’s,” or rather “Craazy Kaate.” The fishermen affect a supreme78 ignorance and indifference79 about “Crazy Kate.” If you ask them, they will look enquiry at one another—and will know nothing as to the name, which appears on every one of those picture-postcards that are sold, literally80, by the ton every season. It is an odd discourtesy; the fact being that every one in Clovelly is perfectly81 well acquainted223 with the legend which tells how one Kate Lyall, who lived here many years ago, lost her sweetheart and went “maazed”—as we say in the West.
The “Hobby Drive” is one of the most charming features of Clovelly. It is a two and a half miles’ cliff drive, branching off from the main road at a lodge-gate, where one pays fourpence for the privilege of traversing that glorious winding-way turning and twisting back upon itself at hairpin82 corners, in negotiating the contours of the cliffs. It was a “hobby” of its constructor, hence the name. From this fern-bordered tree-shaded drive are obtained the finest peeps of Clovelly, down there hundreds of feet below: a toy port, an artist’s dream, a—in fact anything rather than the reality it seems, so dainty and exquisite83 is the view.
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1
appreciative
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| adj.有鉴赏力的，有眼力的；感激的 | |
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quay
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| n.码头，靠岸处 | |
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derive
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| v.取得；导出；引申；来自；源自；出自 | |
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ingenuity
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| n.别出心裁；善于发明创造 | |
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prehistoric
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| adj.（有记载的）历史以前的，史前的，古老的 | |
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dykes
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| abbr.diagonal wire cutters 斜线切割机n.堤( dyke的名词复数 )；坝；堰；沟 | |
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derives
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| v.得到( derive的第三人称单数 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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cleft
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| n.裂缝；adj.裂开的 | |
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footpath
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| n.小路，人行道 | |
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descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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cascade
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| n.小瀑布，喷流；层叠；vi.成瀑布落下 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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refreshments
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| n.点心,便餐;(会议后的)简单茶点招 待 | |
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vex
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| vt.使烦恼，使苦恼 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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manorial
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| adj.庄园的 | |
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standing
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manors
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| n.庄园（manor的复数形式） | |
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conqueror
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| n.征服者，胜利者 | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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privy
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| adj.私用的；隐密的 | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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rebellious
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| adj.造反的，反抗的，难控制的 | |
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penance
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| n.（赎罪的）惩罪 | |
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picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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projectors
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| 电影放映机，幻灯机( projector的名词复数 ) | |
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ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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snug
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| adj.温暖舒适的，合身的，安全的；v.使整洁干净，舒适地依靠，紧贴；n.（英）酒吧里的私房 | |
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overflowing
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| n. 溢出物,溢流 adj. 充沛的，充满的 动词overflow的现在分词形式 | |
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pestles
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| n.（捣碎或碾磨用的）杵( pestle的名词复数 ) | |
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mortars
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utensils
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| 器具，用具，器皿( utensil的名词复数 )； 器物 | |
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auction
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| n.拍卖；拍卖会；vt.拍卖 | |
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amity
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| n.友好关系 | |
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abject
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| adj.极可怜的，卑屈的 | |
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inscribed
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| v.写，刻( inscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；内接 | |
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cringing
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| adj.谄媚，奉承 | |
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cosmopolitan
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| adj.世界性的，全世界的，四海为家的，全球的 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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pervade
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| v.弥漫，遍及，充满，渗透，漫延 | |
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antiquities
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| n.古老( antiquity的名词复数 )；古迹；古人们；古代的风俗习惯 | |
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swirl
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| v.(使)打漩，(使)涡卷；n.漩涡，螺旋形 | |
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indite
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| v.写（文章，信等）创作 | |
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haven
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| n.安全的地方，避难所，庇护所 | |
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dearth
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| n.缺乏，粮食不足，饥谨 | |
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dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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caustic
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| adj.刻薄的，腐蚀性的 | |
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52
revolving
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| adj.旋转的，轮转式的；循环的v.（使）旋转( revolve的现在分词 )；细想 | |
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dint
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| n.由于，靠；凹坑 | |
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clatter
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| v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声 | |
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laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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plentiful
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| adj.富裕的，丰富的 | |
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halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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zigzagging
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| v.弯弯曲曲地走路，曲折地前进( zigzag的现在分词 )；盘陀 | |
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masonry
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| n.砖土建筑；砖石 | |
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pier
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| n.码头；桥墩，桥柱；[建]窗间壁，支柱 | |
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strand
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| vt.使（船）搁浅，使（某人）困于（某地） | |
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ebb
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| vi.衰退，减退；n.处于低潮，处于衰退状态 | |
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receding
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| v.逐渐远离( recede的现在分词 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题 | |
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bower
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| n.凉亭，树荫下凉快之处；闺房；v.荫蔽 | |
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protrudes
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| v.（使某物）伸出，（使某物）突出( protrude的第三人称单数 ) | |
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ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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perpendicularly
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| adv. 垂直地, 笔直地, 纵向地 | |
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cosy
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| adj.温暖而舒适的，安逸的 | |
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humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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70
scatter
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| vt.撒，驱散，散开；散布/播；vi.分散，消散 | |
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71
fowls
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| 鸟( fowl的名词复数 )； 禽肉； 既不是这； 非驴非马 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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alleged
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| a.被指控的，嫌疑的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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margin
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| n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘 | |
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76
perilously
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| adv.充满危险地，危机四伏地 | |
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77
strutted
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| 趾高气扬地走，高视阔步( strut的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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81
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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82
hairpin
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| n.簪,束发夹，夹发针 | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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