ink the sweet scenes of childhood, that mine eyes
I never shut amid the sunny ray,
But straight with all their tints thy waters rise,
Thy crossing plank, thy marge with willows grey,
And bedded sand, that, veined with various dyes,
Gleamed through thy bright transparence! On my way,
Visions of childhood! oft have ye beguiled
Lone manhood's cares, yet waking fondest sighs:
Ah! that once more I were a careless child!'

COLERIDGE: _Sonnet to the River Otter_.

The River Otter rises in Somerset, and runs nearly due south, bearing
slightly westwards till it reaches Honiton. Here it makes a curve still
farther to the west, and from Ottery St Mary runs southwards to the sea.
In Westcote's day, when the derivations of names were taken in a
light-hearted spirit, it was said: 'The river Otter, or river of otters
(water-dogs), taking name from the abundance of these animals (which we
term otters) sometime haunting and using it.' But the more serious
authorities of to-day do not allow that the otters in this river have
anything to do with the matter, and say that the name comes from the
Welsh _y dwr_, the water. It is a rapid and very clear stream, flowing
through green and fertile valleys.

Honiton filled Defoe with admiration when he came to it on his journey
to the West. He describes it as 'a pleasant, good town, that stands in
the best and pleasantest part of the whole country ... and to the
entrance into Honiton the view of the country is the most beautiful
landscape in the world, a mere picture, and I do not remember the like
in any one place in England.' Beyond this pleasantness there is nothing
very remarkable in the town; perhaps its most uncommon feature being a
stream of clear water that runs down the street, with square
dipping-places at intervals.

To the west the town looks over a space of comparatively flat country,
but on the north-west it is overshadowed by St. Cyres Hill, and farther
north is the bold height of Dumpdon. On the top of this hill are the
remains of an oval camp, and a few miles away to the north-west is the
better-known camp called Hembury Fort. The fort stands very high, and
looks south to the sea beyond the Vale of the Otter, and west to Haldon
and the fringes of Dartmoor over Exeter. Three ramparts surround the
fort, which covers a large space of ground, and it is 'divided into two
parts by a double agger.... Several Roman coins, and an iron "lar"
represen