The Express.
London, England, 1865-09-25 00:00:00

YORKSHIRE JOTTINGS.

(nom ♦ 001

PLAYBOROUGII.IIBLD.
Interesting alike to the geologist, the anti-
quarian, the zoologist, and the lover of the pic-
turesque, the long ridge of dangerous cliffs which
terminate abruptly at Flamborougb-heed, are de-
servedly popular with the people wto seek to vary
the monotony of stay-at-home sea-aide life by ez-
cureions or picnics about the coast. Here their
popularity ends. To the mariner they represent
danger, disaster, and death, and though the
friendly lighthouse on the Head is among the best
known landmarks tin the coast, scarcely a winter
passes in which vessels are not dashed to pieces
against the precipitous cliffs, which make so pretty
a foreground to a picture, and which have been so
fatally destructive to both property and life. The
. .

wildest portion of the west of Ireland is not more
ruggedly grand or more palpably dangerous than
are these rade Yorkshire shores, while in their
alternating patches of brilliant verdure and barren
rock, in the fantastic shapes into which they have
been hewed and beaten by the remorseless sea, in
the quaint outlying blocks of rough stone round
which the seething waters ceaselessly surge and
bubble, and in the numerous half-hidden eaves

and Caverns which abound in both, the coasts

of Kerry and those of Yorkshire display the points

they have in common.
The oove at Flamborough, from which boats are

hired, and on which the trahermen land their car-
goes, is a small edition of the now historical Foil-
hommerum Bay. In the exceptional calm and
quiet of its waters, in the tierce steepness of its ap-
proaches from the land, in the desolation and soli-
. __

tude of its surroundings, and in the half-peasant,
half-sailor character of the race living near it, it
presents a striking likeness to the spot where the

- -
shore-end of the Atlantic cable was hid. Fbtm-

borough is essentially a fishing hamlet. Its publio-
houses have yawls and fishing smacks for signs, and

such titles a; "The Ses-bird's Arms" for their dis-

tinctive mark. The wings and feathers of sea
birds are the only articles it endeavours to sell the
visitor, and a large public barometer is the sole ob-
ject of interest in its straggling main street. It is&

mile inland, and though there is a solitary inn near
the summit of the cliffs surrounding the little cove
al ready named, its accommodation is, like that of those
in the village, of an extremely primitive character,
and its bill of fare limited to herrings and bacon and
eggs. The air around smacks strongly of the salt
water long before the sea is visible from the road ;
the people met ea route have all an amphibious
look, and the very donkeys browsing at the road-
. . .

aide are solely employed in conveying fishing nets
and baskets to and from their masters' boats to
their homes. The male natives look like marine
animals hitherto unclassified ; the women strongly
resemble nautical men ; and the children are veritable
old salts, hardy in constitution, indifferent to ex-
posure, and inured to hard work The being who
has charge of the donkeys just mentioned is
a woman, though her thick rough pea-jacket, her
sailor's hat, and the excessive manliness of her ap-
pearance and demeanour, almost make you doubt
her word when she first states her sex. Threepence
per head per week is her fee for sitting at the
hedge-side, and seeing that her interesting charges
do not stray away. Her earnings have, however, to
be shared with the man who obtained her the ap-
pointment of donkey-keeper to the community, or
whose deputy she is, and 3s. Sd., 3s. lld., and
4s. ld. respectively represent the amount of her
income for the last three weeks. " She is a bit of a
shoemaker, however, and whenever she saves a
shilling invests it in leather, and turns au extra
penny in mending fishermen's boots. She has
nothing from the parish, is 65 years of age, and
would be tolerably contented, if it were not for the
galling consciousness that she has well-off relations,
who ought to take better care of her than thin."
From the eloquent thwack she inflicted upon a fat
brown donkey, with lop ears, like a Spanish
rabbit, as she Caine to this part of her
story, it was easy to infer that the
dumb brute symbolised for the moment one of
the unresponding rich relatives in question. In-
deed, with a future limited to "the house" during
the winter months, with present hopes limited to
the acquisition of bite of leather and to frequent
opportunities for patching boots, with an occupation
which involves sitting listlessly still, day after day,
while donkeys monotonously munch at thistles and
grass, it would be an almost pardonable conceit if
each one of the browsing herd were made to stand
for a hostile relation, and to suffer vicariously for
the privations and hardships their care-Meer has
to undergo.
The weather-beaten old man who joined us while
this little life history was being told complained,
with a half surly h uniour peculiar to Yorkshire, and
infinitely amusing, that after having been 65years at
sea and being now 77 years of age, he felt past
work, and " hed to come doon here every day to
run errands !" On being asked whether the bright-
eyed urchin with him was his grandson, this
patriarch shouted " He's my son !" but added,
afters pause, with a true touch of northern caution,
"is I believe, as I believe !" That be had
buried two wives while he was still bale and hearty
above ground, was repeated with considerable unction,
as if his married life had partaken of the nature of
a tempestuous contest, and as if he regarded lon-
gevity as a tribute to his personal merits and un-
doubted superiority over the late partners of his
joys. "Na, na, lad, 'oive hed enuff on 'em,
'oive berried two ;" and then, after a pause,
and as if he had been contradicted, " 'oive
berried two on 'em, I tell tiler!" was
impatiently given in reply to a somewhat im-
portunate advocate of the advisability of his
marrying again ; but as it was soon supplemented by
"I knew o' Sale that had has' me though, if 'oide
• moind !" it may be that succeeding visitors may
find this stout old fellow a Benedict, and that his
services as guide along the cliffs and to the light-
house, up which he has never been, may be even
more interesting and instructive than they un-
doubtedly prove now.
The famous caves ars best seen at high water.
By half sliding, half running down the grassy sides
of the cliff leading to the little bay, the shelving
shore is reached, mid a colloquy is held with boat-
men, of not much more than ordinary rapacity,
and whose fictions as to the time and labour in-
volved kneeing the caverns are of about average
power. Seat yourself in one of their brightly-
painted little fishing boats, the beauty of the wens
beggars description, and is enough to make the
moat prolific wealth of simile bankrupt. Rising
flush from the water, both to the right
and left, are huge masses of dasaingly
white limestone rock, many hundred test
nigh, fretted and worn by the winds and

waves of ages into what looks like fantastic
arabesque-work, or rich muses of elaborately
varied lace. • High up on the shore, so a •
to be out of the reach of the hig!test tide, is
a little fleet of fishing wades. These are stored by
until the winter, and from the radiant hues of the d
parti-coloured stripes of paint which cover them,
look like so many giant harlequins slumbering . ,
peacefully in the sun until the pantomime season
begins, and their services are required A Misr
boy or two, with long red cap hanging over his •
shoulder, blue woollen shirt., bare feet and legs and
short canvass drawers, looking very like those to br
seen about Genoa and Naples, dot the coast ; while
on the bright green grass above, the gambols of a
small pic-nic party and the eccentric gyrations of
ladies who are converted into something between'
gymnasts and animated telegraph posts by the
violence of the wind and the steep slipperiness of
the lucent, combine to give life-zest and animation
to the scene. While these things are being admired
the boatmen are pulling steadily out of the little
bay, and soon reach the first cavern, which is
known as Robin Ly the's Hole, and is a high-vaulted,
spacious, natural eisserber in the rock, which can
be only gained by an aperture barely wide enough
for a boat. Only to be visited in fine weather this
cavern looks like a prison-bonus devisey
some sea-monster for any trespawier on km do-
main. The sunlight is half reflected from the
smooth sides of rocks burnished by the tides of
ages ; and throws a wierd and peculiar veiled glare
upon the fame and persons of all within. The
water looks unnaturally clear, and treacherously
still, and as we peer into it, and note the many
shells, starfish, and rocks at its bottom, it seems as
if—remembering the character and history of the
coast—the seaweed languidly waving to and fro
would reveal some of the many dead men's faces
who have pitifully prayed for shelter before being
remorselessly dashed upon these whitened sepul-
chres of rocks. "This cawst's modder (murder) in
a north wind !" was the significant speech of one
of our boatmen, and when close under it, and the
arabesque work we had admired became so many
savage and barbarous weapons of offence, it was im-
possible to cavil at his speech. The smugglers'
cave is less terribly tomb-like than the other, and
the one known as Kirk's Hole is positively beau-
tiful from its sucoesaion of finely-formed arches and
fretted roof. _ _

From here to the lighthouse is a pull of half an
hour under cliffs where earlier in the year wild
birds congregate as thickly as on the famous Scotch
Baas, or the Irish Skelligs. Each of the rocks passed
on the way to the lighthouse varies in fantastic
shape, dangerously beautiful ! The lighthouse
itself has the almost irritating cleanliness of these
marvellous establishments, and comands a bril-
liant view. No visitor can visit Flamborough
and its Head without admiration and wonder, and '
the tedious journeyithere from Scarborough is more
than compensated for by the true pleasure to be
enjoyed.

DRAMA.