isthmus. On passing through a gateway, and over a draw-bridge, we arrive at the castle, which, previous to the introduction of cannon, must have been almost impregnable. The keep or principal tower is ninety-seven feet high, and though greatly dilapidated, is yet a striking object, more especially when viewed from the sea, at about two miles' distance from the north cliff.
There is no river at Scarborough; and the harbour, which is formed by the piers, is only accessible towards high water. It is high water at Scarborough at forty-five minutes past three o'clock at the full and change of the moon; and at spring tides there is about twenty-two feet water at the end of the pier. At night a light is shown from the lighthouse as long as there is twelve feet water at the entrance to the harbour; and during the same period a flag is hoisted by day.
About 1620 the sanative virtues of the Spa-well were discovered by Mrs. Anne Farrow, who "sometimes walked along the shore, and observing the stones over which the water passed to have received a russet colour, and finding it to have an acid taste different from the common springs, and to receive a purple tincture from galls, thought it probably might have a medical property." The lady having tried the water herself, and persuaded others to do the same, it was in a short time pronounced an all-heal, and the people of the place took it as their usual physic. Before 1670 these waters had become celebrated, and many persons resorted to Scarborough for the sake of drinking them. Medical men, however, disagreed both as to their composition and effects; and the opinions of Dr. Witty, a resident physician, who recommended them in every case, were controverted by Mr. Simpson and Dr. George Tonstall. The latter says of the Spa-water, "The essence is fit for the cup of a prince; the caput mortuum, which is sand and clay, is fit for nothing but the bricklayer's trowel. Hence it doth follow that those who are weak in their digestive faculties, and strong in their distributive, may find good by drinking this water; but those who are weak in both will experience the contrary." From the following anecdote related by the doctor, we may infer that the spa-drinkers of that period were accustomed to indulge in rather copious draughts. "Mr. Westro came to us at Scarborough only to visit his friends, and the two or three days he drank the waters (not above two quarts at a time), did so far put him out of tune, that he made his complaint to me he could neither eat nor sleep; and it took me a week's time before I could reduce him to the state of health which he had before he meddled with the waters." He would have been a person of strong constitution indeed not to have been "put out of tune" by such drenching; and it is no small proof of Dr. Tonstall's skill that he should have been able to restore Mr. Westro the blessings of sound sleep and a good appetite in so short a time as a week. From the double advantage which Scarborough presents to visitors, of drinking the waters and enjoying the benefit of sea bathing, it is much frequented during the summer season; and a more agreeable place is not to be found on the coast betwixt the Humber and the Tyne.
WHITBY.
This engraving of Whitby, from a drawing by Harding, presents a view of the entrance to the harbour, as seen from the northward. Towards the middle of the plate is seen the end of the east pier; on the top of the cliff are the ruins of the abbey and the parish church; while, farther to the right, part of the town is perceived.
Whitby is in the North Riding of Yorkshire, and lies about 246 miles north of London, 22 north-north-west of Scarborough, and 47 north-east of York. It is chiefly built on the sloping banks of the river Esk, by which it is divided into two parts; that on the west side being the most populous. The opposite parts of the town are connected by means of a bridge, the middle of which is moveable for the purpose of allowing ships to pass through. In the old bridge, which has been pulled down, the opening in the middle was upon the principle of a drawbridge, in which the roadway is raised and lowered by means of beams and chains. At high-water the river above the bridge expands into a spacious harbour, where ships can lie in perfect security; but at ebb tide, except in the mid-channel, the harbour is nearly dry. In the outer harbour, as it is called, below the bridge, vessels cannot ride with safety in gales of wind upon the land.
The piers at the entrance to Whitby harbour are not built and maintained at the sole expense of the place, but by a duty on coals shipped at Newcastle, Sunderland, Blyth, and their dependencies—Yarmouth vessels only being exempt—and the sum thus raised amounts to upwards of £2,000 per annum. It is doubtless a great advantage to the people of Whitby to have their piers built and kept in repair at the expense of other ports; but it is equally certain that the same sum might be employed more to the advantage of those by whom it is paid in improving other places—Scarborough and Burlington, for instance—as harbours of refuge on the eastern coast. In a gale of wind from the eastward, Whitby is perhaps one of the most dangerous harbours that a vessel can attempt to take between Yarmouth roads and the Frith of Forth, and captains of coasting vessels cannot be too frequently warned to avoid it. As the flood tide sets strong to the southward across the entrance to the harbour, vessels in attempting to enter with a gale of wind from the north-east are extremely liable to be driven on the rocks and wrecked at the foot of the cliff beyond the east pier.
A singular customary duty, called "making the penny-stake hedge," is annually performed at Whitby, by certain tenants of the Lord of the Manor. It consists in driving a certain number of stakes, which, according to the ancient prescribed form, were to be cut with a knife of the value of one penny, on the shore of the south side of the Esk, at low-water mark, at nine o'clock on the morning of the day before Ascension-day, while a man with a horn blows, "Out on you! Out on you!" to the shame of the persons whose duty it is to drive the stakes. When it shall be full sea or high-water at nine o'clock on the day of performing this service, it was to cease; but as Ascension-day is regulated by the change of the moon this can never happen. This custom is of great antiquity, as the horngarth, the enclosure formed by the stakes, is mentioned about 1315 in the registers of the Abbey, in an account of certain disputes between the abbot, Thomas de Malton, and Alexander de Percy, of Sneaton. Tradition reports that this custom was imposed as a penance on three persons of the families of Percy, Bruce, and Allatson, who held lands of the Abbey, for having killed a hermit in the chapel of Eskdale-side, when hunting a wild boar which had there taken refuge. The penance imposed was the tenure by which they and their successors were to hold the Abbey lands.
Leland, who visited Whitby a few years before the suppression of the monastery, describes it as a "great fisher town;" and he mentions that when he was there a new quay and pier were in course of erection. Until the establishment of the alum works in its neighbourhood, towards the latter end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Whitby appears to have been a place of little trade. As this new branch of commerce extended, the trade and population of Whitby steadily increased until it has attained its present importance.
WHITBY,
FROM THE NORTH-WEST.
The view of Whitby from the north-west, by Balmer, is taken from the sands near Upgang, between Whitby and the village of Sandsend. From this point nearly the whole of the west pier is seen, extending directly from the shore, and having a light-house near its outer extremity. Beyond the pier, and on the other side of the river, are seen the houses built on the sloping side of the cliff, and on its top the ruins of Whitby abbey, which
"In solemn grandeur, calm and still,
O'erlook the
