Beyond Morte Point is Morte Bay, most of whose shore lies low, and is
fringed throughout almost its entire length by the broad expanse of
Woollacombe Sands, along whose margin, at heights varying from eight to
fifteen feet above high-water mark, may be traced at intervals a raised
sea-beach. At the southern extremity of Morte Bay is the noble headland
of Baggy Point, a magnificent piece of cliff, haunted by crowds of
sea-birds, and pierced by many caves. The shore of Croyde Bay, beyond
the Point, is famous for its fertility; and from the crest of Saunton
Down, the last headland before the estuary formed by the waters of the
Taw and the Torridge, is a view which, embracing sea and coast-line,
rich expanses of farm-land, the distant heights of Dartmoor and the
faint shape of Lundy on the far horizon, is one of the finest in all
Devon. Along the shore to the south of Baggy Point, where Saunton Sands
form the seaward fringe of Braunton Burrows, is another long stretch of
raised sea-beach, from two to fifteen feet above high-water mark. And
in this beach, not far from Saunton, is a large boulder of red granite,
a rock unknown in the district, which may have been stranded here by
floating ice.
Braunton Burrows is a long, wide tract of sand-hills, some eighteen
square miles in area, stretching far inland, and reaching to the estuary
of the Taw and the Torridge, with deep hollows among which, without a
compass, it is quite possible to get completely lost. It is a place of
much interest to the naturalist and the antiquarian. A number of rare
plants are found here, great quantities of primitive flint implements
have been discovered in the sand, and at low water the remains of a
submerged forest are to be seen along the shore.
The estuary formed by the combined streams of the Taw and Torridge,
the former of which is also known as the Barnstaple River, flows into
Barnstaple Bay at the south end of Braunton Burrows. There is no port
on the open coast; but just inside the estuary are the quaint old town
of Appledore and the equally ancient village of Instow, on the left and
right banks, respectively, of the river Torridge. In the mouth of the
same stream, a little to the south of Appledore, is a long flat rock
called the Hubblestone; named, according to tradition, after the viking
Hubba, who pillaged this coast in the reign of King Alfred, and fell in
battle at the mouth of the Parrett, in the adjoining county of Somerset.
Blocking up a great part of the river mouth, and stretching down the
coast past Westward Ho! a distance of about two miles, is the Pebble
Ridge, a remarkable bank of shingle and sea-worn boulders, some of which
are of great size, though the majority are not more than a few inches in
diameter. The sea has gradually shifted it further and further inland,
and it now covers what was once a long stretch of good pasture-ground.
On its landward side are the golf-links of Northam Burrows, considered
to be among the finest south of the Tweed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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