Morning journal and courier., 1891-03-07
MIR. wAKEMAN,s JOURNEYINGs


At Yarmouth, England-Pen Pic.
lures OF Seafaring Family in
Dickens "David Copperfield''-Cu-
rious Records of the Early Days of
Yarmouth.
YARMOUTH, England, Feb. 12.
To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
"Every night" said Mr.. Peggotty, "as
regular as the night comes. the candle must
be stood in its old pane of glass, that if
ever she should see it, it may seem to say,
"Come back, my child, come back" If
ever there's knock, Ham (partic'lar soft
knock, arter dark, at your aunt's door,
doen't you go nigh it. Let it be her-not
you-that sees my fallen child"
Thus, poor old heart-broken Mr.. Peggot-
ty, to Ham Peggotty and Mrs. Gummidge,
as he set forth on his weary earch for the
wandering little Emily, after the pitiful
episode of her departure from the Var
mouth boat-home with Steerforth. In the
whole range of English fiction there is
nothing to compare with the sweetness
and pathos of the joys and woes of this
one seafaring family, which the master
hand of Dickens. in 'David Copperfeld," !"
enduringly placed, as type of lowly loyal
ty and love, against the perspective of
humble toll; just as Millet has fixed two
peasant forms against one Breton evening
cleaning, for an eternal suggestion of
prayer.
Without Dickens "David Copperfeld"
and this one family-which we always as
sociate in our minds with long reaches of
sand dunes, bits of wreck, splatches of
ghostly spume and drift of rather dreary
and cruel shore, with a steely, measureless
| waste beyond, and very dank and clam
my fisher town near at hand-Yarmouth
would be unknown to-day, save for the
great plump smoked herrings it sends all
over the world under the name of "Yar-
| mouth bloaters." In our youthtide days,
and with the uncompromising appetites of
| we who were "brown-faced tunicked coun-
| try boys" how their subtle aromc mingled
with and overcame the mysterious scents
| of the country grocery store Mecca! With
their accompaniment of crackers they in
variably won our last coppers. Then
came the royal feast on the empty barrels
and boxes in the rear of the ''store." We
never got enough. But we all registered
vows that when we tgot big" we would go
| to Yarmouth, wherever that was, and just
| sit down and eat one box of herrings with
| out ever leaving off. All that dear groce-
| ry-store time I have heard called very
common and vulgar. But we lads were
| exactly correct in our undirected but un-
erring tastes. Grilled smoked herrings
| are the tid-bits of the most refined cui-
sines to-day.
| 'If as mine thy boyhood's eyes
Rested first on country Skies"
and your first impulse to find Yarmouth
only had so vulgar an inception as in hun
ger for herring;
| .sOr if first thy childish feet
| Pattered o'er city street,
while you seldom got so good thing to
eat as herring, and you never wanted to
see Yarmouth save to come within the
framing of the picture Dickens has paint
ed, in either case do not make the same
blunder I committed some years ago when
first set out to find the ancient city
For England has two Yarnouths. In my
guids-book I saw one named, and set out
from London to see it. By rail I camc tc
Lymington, thence across the Solent by
steamer to the lovely, almost tropical, Isle
of Wight. There was Yarmouth surely; 6
staid, prim, pretty place, with the breatt
of the sea ever in its winsome face, with
the chalk cliffs of England just across tn,
blue Solent and serenely doing in its lit
tie nook of beauty and comfort, becaus,
of the aristocratic facts that Dr. Rober
Hooke, inventor of the pendulum spring
for watches, was born here, and that
upon a time, when Sir Robert Holmes wa
governor of the island, house was bull
| by him purposely for the reception o.
Charles II, for which loyal act the goot
Sir Robert, after death, got his figure GU
in fine white marble, with some nice Latir
epitaphs on the pedestal.
But the real Yarmouth, the herringopo
lis of England and the home of Dickens
Peggottys, is away around on the cas-
| coast. 1t stands on a narrow strip of sant
between the mouth of the river Yare ant
| the German ocean. The same river sepa
rates the shires of Suffolk and Norfolk, t
the latter of which Yarmouth belongs. I
houses perhaps sixty thousand souls
Half of these are in some way seafarin
folk, or exist from some vocation relevan
to seafaring, fishing or shipbuilding. Th
quaint old city is the easternmost in Eng
land, and the first object in all Englan'
touched by the morning sunlight is tn
, tower of its old parish church of St. Mich
olas. Its harbor, mass of fishing smack
and coasters, is the river-mouth itself; an,
the Yarmouth Roads, always crested wit
the foam of scudding, white capped, chop
py waves. is the rendezvous of the Mort
, Sea British fleet. Steamers to and fron
the Scottish and English east-coast ports
coasters with salt and coal; and the quee
Dutch craft from Holland, directly oppo
, site, ceaselessly lowering about the Eng
, lish ports or on their way to the Shetlsn,
! Isles, to the Faroes, to Iceland, or to tn
Norway coast, form interminable ghostl
passing professions, cut cameo-like agains
, the dark eastern horizon, by day, and il
|, the moonlight of peaceful nights, blende
= into pale intaglios as of mimic forests Sc
in bed of steel and stars.
But at best this is a wild, wailing, woe
full coast; and Yarmouth, which has ful
nished men and masts innumerable as vic
Tins to the fury of all seas, has SCENE
fated to be the scene of the oceans sad
, dest tragedies. In 1892, in one night tw
a hundred sail and one Thousand souls wer
: lost by tempest in the Yarmouth Road.
a In 1914 between fifty and one hundre
= sail and their crews were lost in singl
day. still larger number met the sam
J. fate in 1890. And only within the decad
! similar horror occurred. 1t is regarde
= by all seamen as the most dangerous coas
4 in Britain; and there is only one othe
4 spot on the globe recalling SO many an
: terrible ocean eatastrophes. That one
Sable Island, one hundred miles south {
Nova Scotia, known to sailors the worl
i over as "the grave yard of the sea-" Yal
| month Oavar 6uT,rod orrao biofpr,
h though there are some curious records {
Il its early days. 1t originated in the earl
, part of the Anglo Saxon dynasty. 1t We
h just q little sand bank then, where IL
"a Bure and Waveny rivers joined the Yal
!. and together pushed to the sea. Fishe
men frequenting the coast built few rue
huts ON the strip of sand between IL
mouths of the rivers and the ocea
q, Then the Dutch who scented trade ever