| This is to my mind the nicest spot in Whitby, for... 109 |
[Jan. 29th, 2010|07:20 am] |
This is to my mind the nicest spot in Whitby, for it lies right over the town, and has a full view of the harbour and all up the bay to where the headland called Kettleness stretches out into the seaIt descends so steeply over the harbour that part of the bank has fallen away, and some of the graves have been destroyed
In one place part of the stonework of the graves stretches out over the sandy pathway far belowThere are walks, with seats beside them, through the churchyard, and people go and sit there all day long looking at the beautiful view and enjoying the breeze
I shall come and sit here often myself and workIndeed, I am writing now, with my book on my knee, and listening to the talk of three old men who are sitting beside meThey seem to do nothing all day but sit here and talk
The harbour lies below me, with, on the far side, one long granite wall stretching out into the sea, with a curve outwards at the end of it, in the middle of which is a lighthouseA heavy seawall runs along outside of itOn the near side, the seawall makes an elbow crooked inversely, and its end too has a lighthouseBetween the two piers there is a narrow opening into the harbour, which then suddenly widens
It is nice at high water, but when the tide is out it shoals away to nothing, and there is merely the stream of the Esk, running between banks of sand, with rocks here and thereOutside the harbour on this side there rises for about half a mile a great reef, the sharp of which runs straight out from behind the south lighthouseAt the end of it is a buoy with a bell, which swings in bad weather, and sends in a mournful sound on the wind
They have a legend here that when a ship is lost bells are heard out at seaI must ask the old man about thisHe is coming this way?
He is a funny old manHe must be awfully old, for his face is gnarled and twisted like the bark of a treeHe tells me that he is nearly a hundred, and that he was a sailor in the Greenland fishing fleet when Waterloo was foughtHe is, I am afraid, a very sceptical person, for when I asked him about the bells at sea and the White Lady at the abbey he said very brusquely,
"I wouldn't fash masel' about them, missThem things be all wore outMind, I don't say that they never was, but I do say that they wasn't in my timeThey be all very well for comers and trippers, an' the like, but not for a nice young lady like youThem feet-folks from York and Leeds that be always eatin' cured herrin's and drinkin' tea an' lookin' out to buy cheap jet would creed aughtI wonder masel' who'd be bothered tellin' lies to them, even the newspapers, which is full of fool-talk
I thought he would be a good person to learn interesting things from, so I asked him if he would mind telling me something about the whale fishing in the old daysHe was just settling himself to begin when the clock struck six, whereupon he laboured to get up, and said,
"I must gang ageeanwards home now, missMy grand-daughter doesn't like to be kept waitin' when the tea is ready, for it takes me time to crammle aboon the grees, for there be a many of 'em, and miss, I lack belly-timber sairly by the clock
He hobbled away, and I could see him hurrying, as well as he could, down the stepsThe steps are a great feature on the placeThey lead from the town to the church, there are hundreds of them, I do not know how many, and they wind up in a delicate curveThe slope is so gentle that a horse could easily walk up and down them
I think they must originally have had something to do with the abbeyLucy went out, visiting with her mother, and as they were only duty calls, I did not go-I came up here an hour ago with Lucy, and we had a most interesting talk with my old friend and the two others who always come and join himHe is evidently the Sir Oracle of them, and I should think must have been in his time a most dictatorial person
He will not admit anything, and down faces everybodyIf he can't out-argue them he bullies them, and then takes their silence for agreement with his views
Lucy was looking sweetly pretty in her white lawn frockShe has got a beautiful colour since she has been |
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