View of Tiverton, from the hills near Ashley (1819)

Chaplin, J. Picturesque Views on the River Exe. Tiverton: J. Chaplin, 1819. pp. 1-2,14. TIVERTON, anciently called Twyford Town, because situated between Two Fords, is about 14 miles from Exeter, and 176 west from London; 24 miles south from the nearest Port in the Bristol Channel, and nearly the same distance north from the British. It is delightfully situated between two rivers, the Exe on the west and the Loman on the east. The Exe is a most beautiful river, rapid in its origin, but soon disporting itself in a tranquil stream amidst verdant meadows, and surrounded by a well cultivated district. Its descent from its mountainous origin is curiously featured, and its change of character, from a furious torrent to a placid rivulet so abrupt, as to require a peculiar description. Cleaving a passage through the wild hills, which form the ridge above Minehead, and the barrier between the two seas, the Exe insinuates itself imperceptibly into an alpine valley between eminences richly cloathed (sic) with wood, which in some parts feather down to the very margin of the stream, and in others just leave room for a slip of the most verdant meadow; the heights above being strongly marked and varied by thick groves and luxuriant inclosures (sic). […] The drawing of the Town was made from the high grounds above Ashley, about three quarters of a mile distant, near the road leading to Exeter; a spot commanding a more beautiful and extensive view is not often met with. [Text may be taken from a different edition than that listed as the source by Somers Cocks.]

col

Aquatint

167x244mm

S54. CHAPLIN, J.: PICTURESQUE VIEWS ON THE RIVER EXE.