Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-12-06
GRACIOSE.

The line of coast extending northward
from the mouth of the Tees TO Seaham and
Bishop Wearmouth is SO pretty and SO
pleasantly diversified Ill character that ii
seems odd it should have escaped descrip.
ton. 1t may be well that it is so; for per-
haps the best thing that can happen to
those of us who love quiet in these I'M
easy days OF travel is to have the beauties
of our own particular neighborhood left
unsung.
Certainly, in the last century, the little
port of Hartlepool and the huge limestone
caverns of Blackball which lie some few
miles further north were visited by one
who was first among Englishmen to OBJ
serve and describe the beauties of natural
scenery-the poet Gray. What he says,
writing in 1865, is this: 81 have been
for two days at Hartlepool to taste the
waters, and do assure you nothing can be
salter and bitterer and nastier and better
for you. | am delighted with the place.
There are the finest walks and rocks and
caverns and dried fishes and all manner of
small inconvenience man can wish"
And, again, to another correspondent.
he writes a little later on: 'The rocks, the
sea and the weather, these more than made
up to me the want of bread and the want
Of water, two capital defects, but of which
/ learned from the inhabitants not to be
sensible. They live on the refuse of their
own fish market, with few potatoes and a
reasonable quantity Of geneva six days in
the week, and / have nowhere seen a
taller, more robust and healthy race
every house full of ruddy, broad-faced
children nobody dies but of drowning and
old age"
Things are sadly changed there since
then, no doubt, but even now, so long after,
the description holds good in great meas.
ure. The ruddy children, the caves and
rocks, the hardy pilots, the dried cod and
the geneva are all still there, pretty much
as they were when seen by the poet in the
early days of good old King George III.
p At the time of our story they were in the
full swing of their untarnished glory, and
to the delights of geneva were added those
of cognac and tobacco, openly landed and
freely dispensed by smugglers. The mar
row chares and wynds swarmed to over
hON WIN tlOOpS Vi SluIuS DdIe-Itgg6u
urchins. A maze of clothes-lines bespanned
the crooked ways-oilskins and jerseys
huttering gayly aloft in the brisk rush of
east wind, as it swept madly up some blind
alley or funnel. like cul de sac. Gay petit
coats Qike sacred orifammes) hung de-
pendent from many an attic window while
in the lane below was merry and cease
less babble of divers tongues and Ian
guages-
And on the broken pavement, here and there,
Doth may a sinking spGat and herring lie;
brandy and tob lcco shop is near,
And hens and dogs and hogs are feeding by;
And here sailors jacket hangs to dry,
At every door are Sunburut maidenS seen
Mending old nets to catch the scaly fry
The year 1740 was remarkable for at
mospheric disturbances. 1t came in with
frost the like Of which had not been
known in England for thirty-one years; a
frost of such great strength that the
Thames was frozen over, and of such long
continuance that a man, writing on the
18th Of April, says: "This day, for the first
time, spirits rose to the point of warmth"
What his spirits were, and what his point
of warmth, know not; but whatever their
precise meaning, his remarks point evil
IDENTIFY to prolonged and unusual cold.
Violent and destructive thunderstorms
marked the course of the summer from be-
ginning to end November was ushered
in by one of the most furious and fatal
gales of the century. Between Boston and
Lynn sixty ships and upward lay wrecked.
At Whitby the damage done both at sea
and ashore was incredible, and from the
Firth of Forth to the mouth of the Thames
scarcely port or fishing village escaped
without damage and loss of life.
The morning Of All Saints broke mild
and calm-unusually so for the time OF
year-and all Hartlepool was early astir,
as to-day they were to celebrate the
capture of Portobello by Admiral Vernon
and the return to their homes Of four
young townsmen who had taken part in
that gallant action on board Captain
Trevor's ship, the Straford.
The revels were led by Mr.. John He'd
worth, who had ridden in over night from
his house in tire country to do honor to the
town of which he was Mayor and grace
the feast with mis- presence. Till noon all
went merrily enough, and the crowd was
gathered on the town moor, to see the
roasting of an OK. Dense columns OF
smoke from the cracking fagots shot
straight up into the thick autumnal haze.
Low sunshine lay on sea and land be-
lated gnats and midges danced gaylv up
and down in the grateful rays. Yet, for
all this, old tars and weatherwise salts
bent their gaze steadily seward And
rumor soon had it that a storm was at
hand. Nor was rumor far wrong; for
half an hour later the blazing fire was ex-
tinguished by deluge of icy rain, and OF
that throng on the moor all were swept
away before the fury of the blast. to seek
shelter in low-lying streets and closes, at
the back of the town wall, by the little
pilot pier Not one soul of them now re-
manned on the moor, but only the poor
half-roasted, half-sodden OK, creaking and
swinging on his spit, like some highway.
man in his gibbet chains. So lately the
idol and hope of the mob, now forgotten
and forsaken cinder
In the town below men lodged the fly
ing states and tiles, and hardy women, be.
shawled and hooded, stood out in sheltered
hooks to see the swirl Of the tide and the
chance of a wreck-wrecks, in that day
possessing an interest they have quite lost
in this. For with the actual excitement
and furry of the event was then ever
mixed delightful anticipation of blessings
in store. Salvation of life was the last
thing thought of-s cargo of French
brandy was perhaps the first. But if brandy
was not forthcoming, why, then, they
would do with sherry. And sherry, sure
enough, they did with that day, for q
Spanish brigantine flew in before The hur.
ricane out of the darkness and spindrift
seward, and in ten minutes after She was
first sighted had dashed herself to piece:
on the cruel ridge of rock at the harbor
mouth. Down ran the rummaglng, ran.
sacking mob, rihing the dead and dying
and falling with fury like that of the
storm itself on all they could lay hold of
Their greed of drink was Unsuitable. O
one man IL is handed down 10 this day