a landmark to sailors. The tower is
Perpendicular, but most of the church is late Decorated, and the north
side has a Norman doorway. The great feature is the very beautiful
screen which stretches across the whole church; but the cradle roofs are
good, and there is other carving. On the pulpit is the figure of a goat
with tusks, and the puzzling inscription, 'God save King James. Fines.'
The Norman font is curiously sculptured with grotesque faces that look
down on to equally quaint faces on the pedestal--an allegory in stone
which Mr Hawker of Morwenstow interpreted as the righteous looking down
on the wicked.

Three or four miles farther on is the actual border-line, and here one
must turn, although, looking south towards Widemouth Bay, it is
irresistibly tempting to quote a few verses of rank doggerel, written on
a shipwreck which happened there on November 23, 1824. The verses were
probably inspired by terrible stress of emotion, and suggest the idea
that they were written with a spar rather than with a pen; but no doubt
they were for ever the joy and pride of their author.

'Come all you British seamen,
That plough the raging main,
Who fight for King and Country,
And your merchants do maintain.

I'll sing you of a shipwreck
That was here the other day,
At a place that's called Widemouth,
Near Bude, and in that bay.

_Chorus._

'So my British tars be steady,
And maintain your glorious name;
Till you're drowned, killed, or wounded,
You must put to sea again.

'The twenty-third of November,
That was the very time,
A fine and lofty schooner brig,
The _Happy Return_, of Lyme,
The bold and noble Captain
Escaped from the deep,
And died with cold that very night
Near to a flock of sheep.

_Chorus._

'So my British tars, etc.

'The mate, as fine a seaman
As could stand on a deck,
Had with his noble Captain
Escaped from the wreck;
No refuge could be found on shore.
No good could there be done;
He returned on board the deck and died:
The poor man lost his son.

_Chorus._

'So my British tars, etc.

'This poor man's son was not drown'd,
But found dead the next day;
Three only of this manly crew
Escaped death and sea.
Have pity on poor seamen,
Kind gentlemen, I beg;
The one of them is wounded,
The p