Lynmouth on the coast of North Devon (1814)

Ayton, Richard. A voyage round Great Britain, undertaken in the summer of the year 1813 and commencing from the Land's-End, Cornwall. London: Longman & Co and W. Daniell, 1814. Vol. I. pp. 52 -53.About two miles to the eastward of this spot [the Valley of Stones] are the little bay and village of Linmouth, surrounded by a mixed order of scenery, in which the beautiful and the grand are very singularly contrasted. The view is seen to most advantage from the sea, and as we saw it, as it were, by surprise, after the eye had been long bounded by one vast and uninterrupted fence. At Linmouth there is an opening in the cliffs, and through this there unexpectedly dawns upon you a view of the interior, very limited indeed in extent, but varied and picturesque, and a little village in the place of the rude rocks at the water's edge. This scene was suddenly disclosed to us, after gazing at the blank rocks, like the glitter and show of the stage, by the drawing up of the curtain at a theatre. On each side of the bay the cliffs taper down to the sea in two bold slopes, covered with the richest verdure, and abundantly shaded with wood. The cottages are scattered about at their base, and separated into two divisions by a fresh water stream, the Lyn, which, flashing and foaming over a bed of rocks, gives its tiny tribute to the sea with great noise and pretension. But the most imposing feature in the prospect is a huge, rugged, and barren mountain in the back ground, twelve hundred feet in height, and in all that we could see of its front completely perpendicular. This mountain, as we looked at it from the sea, appeared of a square form, standing quite alone, unconnected at either extremity with any other land, and rising at once from the plain like a vast wall. Its naked front acquires additional dreariness by being so immediately opposed to the gentle character of the two sloping points in the fore-ground, whose green pastures and bright foliage sparkle in the sun with more than common lustre, when thus set off by this bleak mountain in their rear. In a wider prospect the effect would not have been so striking, but here every blade of grass has its force, and the barrenness, embodied as it is in so majestic a form, is perfectly sublime. We had intended to make Linmouth the boundary of our day's voyage, but discovered that the barrenness which had so happy an effect in the back-ground of the picture, had advanced into the public-house, which we expected to see smiling with a ripe harvest of rolls and cheese. This unlooked-for circumstance drove us again into our boat, for we had quite outlived all the benefit that we had derived from our foodful landlady at Combe Martin. After two or three strokes of the oars the village disappeared, and we were again shut out by a long line of perpendicular cliffs, suspended like one great curtain.[Text may be taken from a different source or edition than that listed as the source by Somers Cocks.]

Aquatint

170x248mm

S40. DANIELL William (text by AYTON, Richard): A VOYAGE
ROUND GREAT BRITAIN UNDERTAKEN IN THE SUMMER OF THE YEAR 1813 AND COMMENCING FROM THE LAND'S END, CORNWALL.