4. Exmoor is a strip of mountainous country which extends along the coast of North Devon and Somerset. It is a barren and treeless moorland, except where it breaks into wooded valleys and pasture land. It is the only place in England where the wild stag still wanders as free as on the Highlands of Scotland. Here, too, ponies and sheep, hardly less wild than the stag, find pasture on the downs.

5. The highest point on Exmoor is Dunkerry Beacon. From the summit of this hill there is said to be a view which includes fifteen counties. The Cornish Hills are a series of granite moorlands which run through Cornwall and project into the sea at Land's End and Lizard Point. They reach their greatest height in the peak called Brown Willy.

SUMMARY.-The Devonian Mountains are in Devon and Cornwall. They include Dartmoor, Exmoor, and the Cornish Hills. Dartmoor is famous for its granite rocks, called Tors; Exmoor is the home of the wild stag; the Cornish Hills extend into the sea at Land's End and Lizard Point.

EXERCISE.-Draw a Map of South-Western England, showing the Mountains mentioned in this lesson.

35. THE ENGLISH BOY.

1. Look from the ancient mountains down,
My noble English boy!

Thy country's fields around thee gleam
In sunlight and in joy.

2. Ages have rolled since foeman's march
Passed o'er that old firm sod;
For well the land hath fealty held
To freedom and to God!

3. Gaze proudly on, my English boy!
And let thy kindling mind
Drink in the spirit of high thought
From every chainless wind!

4. Gaze where the hamlet's ivied church
Gleams by the antique elm,

Or where the minster lifts the cross
High through the air's blue realm.

5. Martyrs have showered their free heart's blood That England's prayer might rise

From those gray fanes of thoughtful years,
Unfettered to the skies.

6. Along their aisles, beneath their trees,
This earth's most glorious dust,
Once fired with valour, wisdom, song,
Is laid in holy trust.

7. Gaze on, gaze further, further yet,
My gallant English boy!

Yon blue sea bears thy country's flag,
The billows' pride and joy!

8. Those waves in many a fight have closed
Above her faithful dead;

That red-cross flag victoriously

Hath floated o'er their bed.

9. They perished this green turf to keep
By hostile tread unstained,
These knightly halls inviolate,

Those churches unprofaned.

10. And high and clear their memory's light
Along our shore is set,

And many an answering beacon-fire
Shall there be kindled yet!

11. Lift up thy heart, my English boy!
And pray like them to stand,

Should God so summon thee to guard
The altars of thy land.

MRS. HEMANS.

an-cient

free-dom kin-dling show-ered

val-our

an-swer-ing glo-ri-ous mem-o-ry sum-mon

vic-to-ri-ous-ly

An-tique', old.

Bea-con-fire, signal-fire.

In-vi-o-late, not desecrated or in-
sulted.

Martyrs, those who die or who suffer
on account of their belief.
Min-ster, church.

Chain-less, free; wanting the badge Red-cross flag, the banner of St.

of slavery.

George, the patron saint of England,
consisting of a red cross on a white
ground.

Un-fet-tered, chainless; free.
Un-pro-faned', not profaned or
treated with abuse.

36. PLAINS AND TABLE-LANDS.

1. The Plain or Vale of York is the most extensive level district in England. It lies between the Pennine Chain and the Wolds, or wooded hills, of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. It is drained by the river Ouse and its tributaries, which flow from the Pennines to the North Sea.

2. This great plain is not only one of the most fertile districts in England, it is also one of the richest in coal, for it includes the great coal-fields of Northumberland, Durham, and Yorkshire.

3. The Pennine Chain, which extends to the Peak of Derbyshire, separates the York Plain from the Plain of Cheshire.

4. The Plain of Cheshire slopes from the Pennine Chain to the Irish Sea, and includes the whole of Cheshire and the south-west of Lancashire. It forms a rich grazing district, and was called by Edward the Third "the Vale Royal of England." It is famous for its dairies, which produce the well-known Cheshire cheese. In the centre of this plain are the chief English salt-mines.

5. The Central Plain of England stretches from the Pennine Chain to the Cotswold Hills. It is not of the same level throughout; here and there it rises into low uplands and hills. It contains some of the busiest manufacturing towns of England gathered round Birmingham, the centre of the "Black Country."

6. The Fens are the marshy district round the Wash. Here we find the flattest portion of England. It is sometimes called "the English Holland."

As in the country Holland, on the other side of the North Sea, some parts of this coast are protected by dikes, which prevent the water from overflowing the land.

7. The Weald, or wooded part, is a fertile valley between the North and the South Downs in Surrey and Kent. It was once a dense forest, and is still

richly wooded.

8. Salisbury Plain, in Wiltshire, is a tract of open country which rises to a considerable height.

In the south of this plain is Stonehenge, one of the most interesting relics of Druidism in England.

9. It consists of two circles of huge stones, one within the other. The great or outer circle at one time contained thirty stones, of which only seventeen now remain. Some of these stones are about twenty feet in height, seven feet in breadth, and three feet in thickness.