Beyond it and its chalky spires8 and pinnacles9 the coast becomes a mere10 traveller’s bag of samples for awhile; finally, coming to the opening of Branscombe, deciding upon “a good line” of red sandstone, mixed with red marl.
A very serious drawback incidental to the exploration of districts that grow increasingly beautiful as you proceed is that all the available stock of admiratory adjectives is likely to be expended11 long before the journey’s end. They must be carefully husbanded, or you come at last[36] to a nonplus12. Therefore, please at this point to assume beauties that—in the Early Victorian phrasing—can be “more easily imagined than described.” For the rest, conceive a wedge-like opening in the cliffs, cleft13 to permit the egress14 to the sea of a little stream, at all times too tiny for such a magnificent portal, and often in summer altogether dried up. On the western side plant a coastguard station, built like a fort and walled like a defensive15 stockade16; and there you have the seaward aspect of Branscombe.
The landward look of it is entirely17 different. Looking from the sea, and walking away from it, three valleys converging18 seaward are discovered; each one profound, each richly wooded and fertile, and in each little instalments of Branscombe village, dropped casually19, as it were, here and there. I had at first assumed the name “Branscombe” (which is pronounced with a broad “a,” like “ar”) to be derived20 in part from the British brân, a crow, and “Crowcombe” it might well be; but it seems, by the dedication21 of the church to SS. Winifred and Bradwalladr, that it is really St. Brannoc’s Combe, for “Brannoc” is an alias22 of Bradwalladr.
Away up the valley road are little groups of the quaintest23 cottages, with tiny strips of gardens scarce more than two feet wide, forming, as it were, a fringe or hem24 to the walls, and merging25 directly, without fence, into the roadway. But no gardens anywhere can show greater fertility or a more pleasing variety of flowers. Among[37] them are to be seen spoils of the neighbouring cliffs, in the shape of petrified26 vegetation from the coast between Branscombe and Weston Mouth.
Where the roadway climbs round the most impressive bend, and the great wooded hills look down on the other side of the valley, with almost equidistant notches27 in their skyline, like the embrasures of cyclopean fortifications, stands the ancient church of Branscombe. It is oddly placed, considerably28 below the level of the road, and is so old and rugged29, and has been so long untouched, that it looks more like some silver-grey and lichened30 rocky outcrop, rudely fashioned in the form of a church, than the work of builder and[38] architect. And it is in such entire accord with the rocks and trees, the ferns and grasses, the spouting31 rivulets32 and moist skies of this secluded33 valley, that the dedication of it should more appropriately be to the sylvan34 gods of the classic age. There have been those scribbling35 tourists who, passing by and looking upon the time-worn building, have acted the part of agent provocateur to “restoring” zealots by dwelling36 upon the dampness of it, and the “meanness” of the box-like deal pews of the interior; but not yet have their instigations to crime against the picturesque37 been acted upon, and the ferns and mosses39 still sprout40 from the time-worn tower and the interior is still, in its whitewash41, its pews, and its wooden pulpit, an example of the simple sway of the churchwarden and the village carpenter of a simpler age.
One highly elaborate monument redeems42 the church from a charge of emptiness. It is the interesting memorial of Joan Tregarthin, her husbands, John Kellaway and John Wadham, and her twenty children; all of them duly sculptured in effigy43. The Wadhams were the great landowners of Branscombe, away back to the fourteenth century. Among those twenty children is Nicholas Wadham, the last of his race, who died in 1609, and with his wife Dorothy founded Wadham College, Oxford44.
The churchyard of Branscombe is a well-stored repository of unusual epitaphs, ranging from the sentimental45 to the unconsciously humorous and[39] the terrifying. Of the last sort the following is a good example:
“Stay, passenger, a while and read
Your doome I am
You must bee dead.”
The uncertainty46 as to what this malignant47 gentleman really intends to convey does by no means lessen48 his impressiveness.
The lengthiest49 of them all is the following, on a time-worn altar-tomb outside the porch:
“Pro. x. 7. The memory of the ivst is blessed.
“An epitaph on William Lee, the Father, and Robert Lee, the son: both buryed together in one grave. October the 2: 1658.
“Reader aske not who lyes here
Vnlesse thou meanst to drop a tear.
Father and son heere joyntly have
One life, one death, one tombe, one grave.
The root and branch both in a day.
Our comfort in there death is this,
And, as a present, served it up on high,
Whilst heere the vessels with the lees doe lye.”
Another records the end of a labourer accidentally shot on his returning home from work, and yet another is to an exciseman, “who fell from the cliff between Beer and Seaton, as he was extinguishing a fire which was a signal to a smuggling55 boat.” The verse on Joseph Braddick,[40] a farmer, who died suddenly at sheep-shearing, hesitates between flippancy56 and exhortation57:
“Strong and at labour suddenly he reels,
Death came behind him and struck up his heels,
Such sudden strokes, surviving mortals, bid ye
Stand on your watch, and to be allso ready.”
Sacred to the Memory of
of Boulogne-sur-Mer.
Drowned at Torbay, 29th March, 1897.
Buried here 30th June, 1897.
“The only son of his mother, and she a widow.”
St. Luke vii. 12.
There is fine, rough walking up over the cliffs past the coastguard station of Branscombe, or down by the sandy shingle61 to Littlecombe Shoot and Weston Mouth, where the landsprings well out of the marly cliff-sides and petrify62 everything within reach. At the cost of scaling some of the buttery slides of red mud, and becoming more or less smothered63 with an ochreous mess resembling anchovy64 paste, it is possible to find most interesting examples of petrified moss38 and blackberry brambles; but the weaker brethren and those “righteous men” (as defined by Mrs. Poyser), who are “keerful of their clothes,” purchase such specimens65 as they may at Branscombe, and on[41] their return home, yarn66 about the Alpine67 difficulties of discovering them.
On the summit to the western side of Weston Mouth, away back from the beetling68 edge of Dunscombe Cliff, 350 feet above the sea, stands the picturesque group of Dunscombe Farm and the ruined, ivy-mantled walls of what seems to have been an old manor69-house. To this succeeds the valley of Salcombe, with the village of Salcombe Regis, away a mile inland.
It is a long, long way into Sidmouth, through Salcombe Regis, whose “Regis” was added so long ago as the time of Athelstan, who owned the manor and the salt-pans down in the combe by the sea. When you have come to the houses and think this is Sidmouth, it is only Landpart, and there is very near another mile to go; which, if you have acquired what the Devon people call a “kibbed”—that is to say a rubbed—heel by dint70 of much walking, is a distressing71 thing.
点击收听单词发音
1 immutable | |
adj.不可改变的,永恒的 | |
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2 descend | |
vt./vi.传下来,下来,下降 | |
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3 laboriously | |
adv.艰苦地;费力地;辛勤地;(文体等)佶屈聱牙地 | |
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4 ascend | |
vi.渐渐上升,升高;vt.攀登,登上 | |
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5 westward | |
n.西方,西部;adj.西方的,向西的;adv.向西 | |
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6 vaguely | |
adv.含糊地,暖昧地 | |
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7 misty | |
adj.雾蒙蒙的,有雾的 | |
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8 spires | |
n.(教堂的) 塔尖,尖顶( spire的名词复数 ) | |
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9 pinnacles | |
顶峰( pinnacle的名词复数 ); 顶点; 尖顶; 小尖塔 | |
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10 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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11 expended | |
v.花费( expend的过去式和过去分词 );使用(钱等)做某事;用光;耗尽 | |
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12 nonplus | |
v.使困窘;使狼狈 | |
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13 cleft | |
n.裂缝;adj.裂开的 | |
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14 egress | |
n.出去;出口 | |
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15 defensive | |
adj.防御的;防卫的;防守的 | |
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16 stockade | |
n.栅栏,围栏;v.用栅栏防护 | |
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17 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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18 converging | |
adj.收敛[缩]的,会聚的,趋同的v.(线条、运动的物体等)会于一点( converge的现在分词 );(趋于)相似或相同;人或车辆汇集;聚集 | |
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19 casually | |
adv.漠不关心地,无动于衷地,不负责任地 | |
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20 derived | |
vi.起源;由来;衍生;导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 );(从…中)得到获得;源于;(从…中)提取 | |
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21 dedication | |
n.奉献,献身,致力,题献,献辞 | |
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22 alias | |
n.化名;别名;adv.又名 | |
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23 quaintest | |
adj.古色古香的( quaint的最高级 );少见的,古怪的 | |
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24 hem | |
n.贴边,镶边;vt.缝贴边;(in)包围,限制 | |
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25 merging | |
合并(分类) | |
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26 petrified | |
adj.惊呆的;目瞪口呆的v.使吓呆,使惊呆;变僵硬;使石化(petrify的过去式和过去分词) | |
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27 notches | |
n.(边缘或表面上的)V型痕迹( notch的名词复数 );刻痕;水平;等级 | |
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28 considerably | |
adv.极大地;相当大地;在很大程度上 | |
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29 rugged | |
adj.高低不平的,粗糙的,粗壮的,强健的 | |
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30 lichened | |
adj.长满地衣的,长青苔的 | |
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31 spouting | |
n.水落管系统v.(指液体)喷出( spout的现在分词 );滔滔不绝地讲;喋喋不休地说;喷水 | |
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32 rivulets | |
n.小河,小溪( rivulet的名词复数 ) | |
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33 secluded | |
adj.与世隔绝的;隐退的;偏僻的v.使隔开,使隐退( seclude的过去式和过去分词) | |
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34 sylvan | |
adj.森林的 | |
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35 scribbling | |
n.乱涂[写]胡[乱]写的文章[作品]v.潦草的书写( scribble的现在分词 );乱画;草草地写;匆匆记下 | |
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36 dwelling | |
n.住宅,住所,寓所 | |
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37 picturesque | |
adj.美丽如画的,(语言)生动的,绘声绘色的 | |
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38 moss | |
n.苔,藓,地衣 | |
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39 mosses | |
n. 藓类, 苔藓植物 名词moss的复数形式 | |
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40 sprout | |
n.芽,萌芽;vt.使发芽,摘去芽;vi.长芽,抽条 | |
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41 whitewash | |
v.粉刷,掩饰;n.石灰水,粉刷,掩饰 | |
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42 redeems | |
补偿( redeem的第三人称单数 ); 实践; 解救; 使…免受责难 | |
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43 effigy | |
n.肖像 | |
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44 Oxford | |
n.牛津(英国城市) | |
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45 sentimental | |
adj.多愁善感的,感伤的 | |
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46 uncertainty | |
n.易变,靠不住,不确知,不确定的事物 | |
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47 malignant | |
adj.恶性的,致命的;恶意的,恶毒的 | |
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48 lessen | |
vt.减少,减轻;缩小 | |
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49 lengthiest | |
adj.长的,漫长的,啰嗦的( lengthy的最高级 ) | |
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50 impartial | |
adj.(in,to)公正的,无偏见的 | |
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51 slay | |
v.杀死,宰杀,杀戮 | |
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52 bliss | |
n.狂喜,福佑,天赐的福 | |
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53 vessels | |
n.血管( vessel的名词复数 );船;容器;(具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的)人 | |
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54 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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55 smuggling | |
n.走私 | |
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56 flippancy | |
n.轻率;浮躁;无礼的行动 | |
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57 exhortation | |
n.劝告,规劝 | |
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58 touching | |
adj.动人的,使人感伤的 | |
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59 mariner | |
n.水手号不载人航天探测器,海员,航海者 | |
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60 aged | |
adj.年老的,陈年的 | |
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61 shingle | |
n.木瓦板;小招牌(尤指医生或律师挂的营业招牌);v.用木瓦板盖(屋顶);把(女子头发)剪短 | |
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62 petrify | |
vt.使发呆;使…变成化石 | |
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63 smothered | |
(使)窒息, (使)透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 ); 覆盖; 忍住; 抑制 | |
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64 anchovy | |
n.凤尾鱼 | |
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65 specimens | |
n.样品( specimen的名词复数 );范例;(化验的)抽样;某种类型的人 | |
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66 yarn | |
n.纱,纱线,纺线;奇闻漫谈,旅行轶事 | |
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67 alpine | |
adj.高山的;n.高山植物 | |
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68 beetling | |
adj.突出的,悬垂的v.快速移动( beetle的现在分词 ) | |
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69 manor | |
n.庄园,领地 | |
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70 dint | |
n.由于,靠;凹坑 | |
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71 distressing | |
a.使人痛苦的 | |
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