From the vale where the Branscombe pours its clear waters through rough masses of shingle into the sea the ground to the east rises steeply to a height of nearly five hundred feet; the cliff is thus not nearly so high as many another, but it has features of peculiar interest.

Here, in some former time, there has been a landslip, a large portion of the cliff at its highest part falling below and forming a sloping mass a chalky soil mingled with huge fragments of rock, which lies like a buttress against the vertical precipice and seems to lend it support.

The fall must have occurred a very long time back, as the vegetation that overspreads the rude slope--hawthorn, furze, and ivy--has an ancient look.

Here are huge masses of rock standing isolated, that resemble in their forms ruined castles, towers, and churches, some of them completely overgrown with ivy.

On this rough slope, under the shelter of the cliff, with the sea at its feet, the villagers have formed their cultivated patches.