“Why, ’tes like this yur, ye see, Salcombe don’ want no railway; we’m martel glad, I zhuree, ’ur didden coom no furder’n Kingsbridge, an’ them as wants et now’d be main zorry et ever comed, ef’t du coom. Some on ’em wrote their names down on what they carled a petition for et. That old feller nex’ door to me was one on ’em. ‘Aw, yo’ ole fule,’ I ses, friendly like, ‘what av’ee dued now; baintee zatisfied tu be left peaceable? Why, yo’ must be maazed; vair zillee, fer zure. Scralee out yer name to-rights,’ ses I; ‘us-uns, don’ wan’ no railways yur.’” [Illustration: AN OLD COTTAGE, SALCOMBE.] “And the railway has been abandoned, then?” “Zim zo: leastways we’m niver yurd nuthin’ more on’t.” “But why object to a railway: it would bring more people? Look how prosperous Kingsbridge has become since the railway was opened.” “Aw, my dear sawl, ther’s no livin’ fer poor vo’k wher’ ther’s a railway. It doubles yer rent an’ the price of yer food, an’ all the gentry goes away, an’ all them as cooms into the place on business, an’ usen’d be able to git out’n it agen in a hurry, why, they’m off agen same arternoon.” [Illustration: SALCOMBE CASTLE.] And that’s true enough, as Kingsbridge has discovered. Meanwhile, Salcombe remains a place which may not inaptly be compared with a lobster pot or a beetle-trap. It is not difficult to enter, but it _is_ difficult to leave, unless you are prepared to hoof it, as many a commercial traveller knows. Touch is kept with the outer world by means of an omnibus to Kingsbridge and by a steamer plying up and down the river; and sometimes the Kingsbridge Packet voyages out to sea, and comes at last to a safe haven in Plymouth Barbican after having casually taken ground on a mud-bank or two down the river. The Kingsbridge Packet is not precisely a liner, and is indeed a cargo-boat which does not even disdain potatoes and live sheep. [Illustration: SALCOMBE CHURCH.] “Kingsbridge River” is altogether a misnomer. It is a five-mile long inlet of the sea, with numerous subsidiary creeks winding between the hills. The scenery is rendered comparatively desolate by the lack of woods, and it is of a peculiar solitude. Kingsbridge town itself sits at the head of the creek, and is a thriving little place. The villages of Charleton, Frogmore, and South Pool stand on their respective creeks. Salcombe is not a little proud of its literary association with Froude, who entertained Tennyson at his residence, Woodcot, toward the close of their respective careers, and it is a cherished article of faith that the Poet Laureate here received the inspiration of his “Crossing the Bar.” Froude himself sleeps in the cemetery on the hill-top, where his epitaph may be read with interest:— In Memory of James Anthony Froude, M.A., Regius Professor of Modern History, Oxford. Son of the Rev. R. H. Froude, late Archdeacon of Totnes. Born at Dartington April 23, 1818, Died at Salcombe, October 20, 1894.