e of the descent, and the best
is thus kept till last. To the majority of sightseers who arrive by
train this is, of course, a counsel of perfection, but it is as well
that those who ascend from the village should be warned that the top of
the pass emerges upon open tableland, and that nothing remarkable
awaits them at the end of their climb. The grand _canon_ is only a
quarter of a mile or so from the mouth of the gorge. Here the road
winds in and out like a double S at the foot of the cliffs, which,
gracefully festooned with creepers, tower above the spectator like the
bastions of some gigantic castle. Possibly there are higher walls of
rock elsewhere, but there are none which, for their height, have the
same perpendicularity. In some cases they rise sheer from the roadway
with a vertical face of 450 ft. Unfortunately an energetically worked
quarry has wrecked one side of the ravine, and the clatter of the
machinery detracts considerably from the repose of the scene. Near the
entrance of the pass a detached mass of rock roughly resembling a
crouching lion guards it like a sentinel. At its feet is spread a
pretty little sheet of water fed by subterranean streams. In these
hidden rivulets we have no doubt the instrument which nature has used
to fashion the cliffs. Geologists assert that the gorge is but the
ruins of a collapsed tunnel which once carried the water of some
primeval river. A series of caverns at the entrance of the valley are
vigorously exploited by their owners as "side shows" to this exhibition
of natural marvels. Of these caves _Cox's_, the one nearest the
village, was discovered as early as 1832, and has long been known to
excursionists as one of the sights of Cheddar (entrance fee 1s.). The
stalactites within are highly fantastic in shape and peculiarly rich in
colour. There is, however, more to be seen for the money at _Gough's_,
a little higher up, where a similar charge is made. A long natural
gallery, rendered in places more accessible by excavation, runs for a
quarter of a mile into the heart of the rock and opens up a series of
vast chambers elaborately hung with stalactites. When the electric
light is thrown on these pendants an almost pantomimic effect is
produced. The scientific interest of the cavern consists in the
abundant remains of extinct animals that from time to time have been
discovered here. Amongst other specimens on show at the entrance are
the bones of a pre-historic man unearthed