Page:Early Reminiscences.djvu/28

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6
EARLY REMINISCENCES

and inclined to plumpness. Their pure high colour is due to the climate, the air soft and soothing, with little sun to freckle. There is, however, some lack of sparkle and intelligence in the eyes. Those who pertain to the lily type have delicate ivory complexions, flexibility and grace of form, and more of soul speaking out of their fuller eyes.

Of the dapper type, the mignon, with clever roguish countenance, we possess few specimens.

It is due again to the climate that the Devonshire women retain their freshness and good looks much longer than in other parts of England.

The men are usually well-built and their features are good. I had masons working for me many years ago, when Lord Halifax, who was staying with me, exclaimed: " Why, you have got Lohengrin in your service," and his brothers—there were six of them—were quite as handsome. I have never seen the ruggedness and shapelessness of the Scottish face among them. The profile is usually good, and the mouth well-formed, with none of the coarseness and sensuality about the lips, nor again the bulkiness of body, so often seen among men from the Midlands.

In character, men and women are kindly, and full of tenderness to one another in cases of sickness or trouble; but they are touchy and liable to take offence at trifles. Their very kindness and natural courtesy conduces to double-facedness; and they do not adhere strictly to truth. My wife once complained to me of this. "My dear," I replied, "they have such lively imaginations that they romance. Our people have more of the Celt in them than of the Scandinavian or Teuton, as your people possess in Yorkshire. You must take folk as they are, and make allowances. Salmon is not turbot, in colour or taste, but both are very good eating. Moreover, both have bones, and some of these are very sharp."

On Broadbury are numerous barrows, or tumuli, that have never been explored; one only was opened a few years ago, and yielded an amber bead; and a square Roman camp, now nearly ploughed down, but which I can remember with its banks and gates quite distinct. There was probably another between there and Okehampton, as a farm in that direction bears the name of