CLOVELLY  , a fishing

village in the Barnstaple parliamentary division of Devonshire, England, i1 m . W.S.W. of Bideford . Pop . (1901) 621 . It is a cluster of old-fashioned 'cottages in a unique position on the sides of a rocky cleft in the north coast; its main street resembles a staircase which descends 400 ft. to the pier, too steeply to allow of any wheeled traffic . Thick woods shelter it on three sides, and render the climate so mild that fuchsias and other delicate plants flourish in midwinter . All Saints' church, restored in 1866, is late Norman, containing several monuments to the Carys, lords of the manor for 600 years . The surrounding scenery is famous for its richness of colour, especially in the grounds of Cary Court, and along " The Hobby," a road cut through the woods and overlooking the sea . Clovelly is described by Dickens in A Message from the Sea .