There was doubtless a time when these kidney-potato pavements were looked upon as concessions[92] to a growing spirit of luxury, and it is conceivable that, from the time when Teignmouth first arose beside the azure9 main (somewhere about the time of Edward the Confessor) until the first quarter of the nineteenth century, the place did very well without pavings or sidewalks of any description. Sea-boots and shore-going footgear an inch thick in the sole, and well hobnailed, overcame any little difficulties with water, mud, or shingle10; and it was only when seaside holidays first came into fashion and “visitors” appeared that any fine distinctions were drawn11 between roads and paths.
When the railway came to Teignmouth in 1846, it found a quiet, rather out-of-the-way little town and port, of narrow and winding12 streets, lined with rustic13 Devonian cob-built cottages, alternating with what had been modish14 little plaster-fronted villas15 with skimpy little balconies and bow fronts. Many of them still remain in the older part of the town, in French Street and Hollands Road. If they were larger, they would remind one of Brighton and the Regency, but, in the miniature sort, they are oddly reminiscent of Jane Austen andheroines.
In pre-railway days Teignmouth lay, as it were, in an eddy16 of traffic. The mail coaches went from Exeter to Plymouth far inland, and only strictly17 local stages hugged the coastwise roads; but with the opening of the South Devon Railway, as it then was, Teignmouth at once[93] was placed on the main route from London to the West. There should certainly be a statue of Brunel on the Den18 at Teignmouth, for by planning the railway to run along the coast he not only made the fortune of the town, but added magnificently to the picturesqueness19 of the shore, in building that two and a half miles of massive[94] sea-wall on which the railway comes into the town.
Teignmouth is one of those very few places the railway does not vulgarise, by bringing you in at the back door, so to speak, and through the kitchen and the scullery. You are brought along that sea wall, in full view of a gorgeously-coloured coast, into a fine airy station, expectant of the best, and are not disappointed in that expectation; if, indeed, a little mystified as to your bearings. To acquire those bearings, the proper way, after all, here as elsewhere, is to enter the town by road, whether by the extravagantly20 hilly high road along the cliff tops, or along the sea wall. That is the geographically21 educative way, by which you shall see how the original Teignmouth was built on a flat sandy spit at the mouth of the Teign estuary22, and how by degrees it has grown upwards23 and backwards24, away from river and sea, even to the lower slopes of the lofty moorland of Haldon.
The most outstanding peculiarity25, and one of the finest features of Teignmouth is “the Den,” the wide sweep of lawn that ornaments26 the whole of the seaward side of the town and at once stamps Teignmouth as something wholly out of the ordinary. “The Den,” properly “dene,” was originally a flat sandy waste where the fishermen of the old fishing town dried their nets, and when the town suddenly was made to take on the appearance of a fashionable resort, in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, and a formal front was built, looking upon the sea, the houses were[95] planned in a huge crescent, following the lines of that open space. Whether this was done from choice or necessity does not appear, but it would certainly seem that the builders of what was then “modern” Teignmouth were offered no alternative, and that they dared not lay hands upon what was really common land.
Within the memory of many visitors to Teignmouth the grassy27 Den has wonderfully improved. A comparatively few years ago it was still scrubby and common-like, and its bordering flower-beds and rockeries were rich only in rocks, but the grass now grows green, the flowers flourish, and sheltering shrubs28 have grown phenomenally. The fishermen still exercise their ancient prescriptive right of spreading their seine nets out to dry on the grass, but, for some reason or another, not so greatly as before.
The sea-front of Teignmouth, following the semi-circle of the Den, is decoratively29 imposing30 when viewed at a little distance, for there is much virtue31, architecturally, in a crescent, however little there may be in the houses individually. They are ambitious buildings, chiefly in these times boarding-houses, but with the “Royal Hotel” and the ugly East Devon and Teignmouth Club prominent among them. According to intention and to the description given of the Club-house in local literature, it is in the Ionic style, but seeing that it is of brick and rubble32, faced with plaster masquerading as stone, we shall not be far wrong in declaring that, in spite of—nay, because of—its[96] colonnade33 of squatty columns pretending to be Greek, its style is more fitly to be described as “ironic.”
There is, indeed, a great deal of very bad architecture in Teignmouth, of the pretentious34 kind; very solid, stolid35 and ugly, and the newer houses, although more pleasing to the eye, are generally of an incredible flimsiness. If the natural scenery of sea, land, and river were not so surprisingly beautiful, the builders’ handiwork would long ago have ruined Teignmouth, and it says much for the natural advantages of the place that, although there are less than half a dozen decent bits of architecture, ancient or modern, in the town, it is voted delightful by thousands of holiday-makers.
It is because I love Teignmouth so well that I criticise36 it so closely. For the sake of the place that nature has endowed so richly, one must needs protest against the things that have been done, the blunders and the vulgarities that have been perpetrated. Was ever there a place where advertisements could look more offensive? Yet the entrance to the pier37 is smothered38 with them. They stand boldly out against the scenery, and your view across to Torbay or to Exmouth is obliterated39 by the pushful poster and the enamelled iron sign. Frankly40, they are grievous mistakes. One does not always want to be playing Rogers’ pianos, nor even, for that matter, Paish’s; and there are times—incredible though it may seem—when Fry’s Cocoa and Dunville’s Whisky are distinctly de trop. But enough!
[97]
Coming into Teignmouth by the sea-wall, almost the first building met with is East Teignmouth Church, almost wholly rebuilt in recent years, from the 1887 Jubilee41 Tower downwards42. It is one of Teignmouth’s two parish churches that once formed a couple owning the unenviable distinction of being pre-eminently the ugliest churches in all Devon, but now that the Jubilee and later activities have utterly43 altered the aspect of this church of St. Michael, East Teignmouth, that unlovely brotherhood44 has been dissolved, and St. James’s, West Teignmouth, reigns45 supreme46 in the kingdom of the grotesque47.
Not by any means that these much-criticised buildings were offensively ugly. Their ugliness was of that supreme and old-fashioned kind so greatly prized in (for example) old china. It transcended48 the merely ugly and rose into the realms of the hideously49 quaint50. St. Michael’s tower, for instance, was a very gem51 of misbegotten early nineteenth-century “Saxon” architecture, done in grim grey stucco, and looking like the architectural monstrosities of nightmare-land. It would have genuinely astonished any Saxon privileged to revisit the earth after a thousand years and seeking the original Saxon building he had known on this site. The present tower, in the Perpendicular52 style, is ornately pinnacled53 and windowed, and although so very florid, is a beautiful and entirely successful feature. The almost wave-washed position of St. Michael’s is a startling surprise to the stranger, although the inhabitants[98] and the congregation take it soberly enough; as well they may, considering that, although it stands so little removed from high-water mark, and although the salt sea spray of winter’s storms flecks54 its walls, the sea does not appear to have gained the fraction of an inch since the first church arose on this site, in the tenth century. On a wall of this peculiarly seaside place of worship the stranger may read a pathetic story of the sea, in the epitaph to John and Richard Westlake, lost in the foundering55 of the brig Isla, in the storm of October 29th, 1823, “within sight of this church.”
St. James’s church, the surviving ugly brother, stands commandingly at the crest56 of the steep rise through the town, at the entrance to Bitton. It is often known as the “round church” because of its central lantern tower, which is octagonal. It is only with a difference I endorse57 the received opinion among architectural critics that this church of West Teignmouth is so ugly. Architecturally, the lantern-tower and the odd octangular interior additions made nearly a century ago are enormities, but looked at from the lay point of view, the whole mass of the building, while singular, is imposing—and I am afraid the uninstructed public rather like it.
This is almost enough about churches, save for the fact that we are here come, in this beautiful West country, into a deeply religious land, where the Church of England weakens and Dissent58 takes firm hold.
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1
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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pebbles
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| [复数]鹅卵石； 沙砾； 卵石，小圆石( pebble的名词复数 ) | |
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gleaned
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| v.一点点地收集（资料、事实）( glean的过去式和过去分词 )；（收割后）拾穗 | |
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considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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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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wayfarers
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| n.旅人，（尤指）徒步旅行者( wayfarer的名词复数 ) | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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azure
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| adj.天蓝色的，蔚蓝色的 | |
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shingle
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| 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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11
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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rustic
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| adj.乡村的，有乡村特色的；n.乡下人，乡巴佬 | |
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modish
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| adj.流行的，时髦的 | |
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villas
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| 别墅，公馆( villa的名词复数 )； （城郊）住宅 | |
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eddy
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| n.漩涡，涡流 | |
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strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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den
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| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
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picturesqueness
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extravagantly
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| adv.挥霍无度地 | |
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geographically
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| adv.地理学上，在地理上，地理方面 | |
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estuary
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| n.河口，江口 | |
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upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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backwards
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| adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地 | |
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peculiarity
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| n.独特性，特色；特殊的东西；怪癖 | |
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ornaments
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| n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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grassy
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| adj.盖满草的；长满草的 | |
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shrubs
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| 灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
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decoratively
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imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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32
rubble
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| n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾 | |
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colonnade
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| n.柱廊 | |
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pretentious
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| adj.自命不凡的，自负的，炫耀的 | |
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stolid
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| adj.无动于衷的，感情麻木的 | |
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criticise
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| v.批评，评论；非难 | |
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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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38
smothered
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| （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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39
obliterated
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| v.除去( obliterate的过去式和过去分词 )；涂去；擦掉；彻底破坏或毁灭 | |
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40
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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41
jubilee
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| n.周年纪念；欢乐 | |
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42
downwards
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| adj./adv.向下的（地），下行的（地） | |
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43
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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44
brotherhood
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| n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊 | |
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45
reigns
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| n.君主的统治( reign的名词复数 )；君主统治时期；任期；当政期 | |
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46
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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47
grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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48
transcended
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| 超出或超越（经验、信念、描写能力等）的范围( transcend的过去式和过去分词 )； 优于或胜过… | |
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49
hideously
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| adv.可怕地，非常讨厌地 | |
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50
quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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51
gem
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| n.宝石，珠宝；受爱戴的人 [同]jewel | |
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52
perpendicular
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| adj.垂直的，直立的；n.垂直线，垂直的位置 | |
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53
pinnacled
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| 小尖塔般耸立的，顶处的 | |
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54
flecks
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| n.斑点，小点( fleck的名词复数 )；癍 | |
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55
foundering
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| v.创始人( founder的现在分词 ) | |
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56
crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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57
endorse
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| vt.(支票、汇票等)背书，背署；批注；同意 | |
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58
dissent
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| n./v.不同意，持异议 | |
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