Victorian photo #76: The Watersmeet, Lynton, Devon (100 Gems of English Scenery)

 

From ‘One Hundred Gems of English Scenery’, 1901

If Devon can fairly claim to be “facile princeps” in the matter of quiet scenic beauty, surely the Watersmeet near Lynton is the sanctum sanctorum of Devon.

A walk up the East Lyn for a couple of miles, up to the point where Combe Water joins the larger stream, is one continuous succession of ravishing scenes. A stream hurrying down to join the sea. that is all, but in what a channel. Hemmed in by lofty hills, almost mountains, clothed in magnificent foliage, and garnished to the waters edge by bracken, fern and moss, while to the sportsman and angler are there not the lusty speckled trout to be lured from the foaming torrent or quiet pool?

Hepsie and Herbert Jollyman had their honeymoon at Lynton, and returned twenty-five years later for their ‘Honeyspoon’ – a holiday in the same place (see The Honeyspoon Letters). They went to Watersmeet and admired the scenery, but they certainly didn’t start pontificating in Latin phrases!