The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1891-03-07
VAKHMAN'S TRAVELS.
Copyright, lsOl.I
NJ EDGAR L. wAKRMAN.
Old Yarmouth Town.

Special Correspondence of he IntesltgReer.
YARMOUTH, ENGLAND, Feb. IL, 1891
every night" said Mr.. Peggotty, "as
regular as the night comes, the candle
must be stood in its old pane Of glass,
thatif ever she should see 1t, 1t may seem
to say, Come back, my child, come
backr II ever there's a knock, Ham
(psrtic'lar soft knock, arter dark, at
your aunt's door, don't you so nigh it.
Let it be her-not you-thst sees my
fallen childw
Thus, poor old broken.hearted Mr..
Peggotty, to Ham Peggotty and Mrs.
Gummidge, as he set forth on his weary
search for the wandering little Emily,
alter the pitiiui episode other departure
from the Yarmouth boat.home with
steerforth. In the whole range Of Eng.
lish fiction there ia nothing to compare
with the sweetn ess and pathos OF the
joys and woes Of this one seafaring
family, which the master.hAnd of Dick
ens, in "David Copperfeld," enduringly
placed, as type Of lowly loyalty and love,
against the perspective OF humble toll
iuat as AIillet has fixed two peasant
forms against one Breton evening gloam.
iDp for an eternal suggestion Of prayer.
Without Dickens "David Copper
field" and this one famiiy-whicn we
always associate in our minds with long
reaches Of sand.dunes, bits OF wreck,
splatches OF ghostly spume and DRIFT OF
a rather dreary and cruel shore, with q
steely, measureleas waste beyond, and q
very dark and clammy fisher-town near
at hand-Yarmouth would be unknown
to-day, save for the great plump smoked
herrings 1t sends all over the world
under the name OF yarmouth bloat-
ers." In our youthful days, and with
the uncompromising appetites OF we
who were "brown.faced tunicked coun.
try boys" how their subtle aroma min.
gled with and overcame the mysterious
pceHts Of the country grocery.store
Mecca! With their accompaniment OF
crackers they invariably 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 "got big" we would go to Yarmouth,
wherever that wac, and just sit down
and-eat one box OF behring's without
ever leaving of. All that dear grocery.
store time have heard called very COM
mon aud vulgar. But we lads were ex.
aCtly correct in our undirected but IN.
errfng tasts. Chilled smoked behring's
are the tid.bits Of the most refined
cuisines to-day.
III as mine thy boyhood's eyes
Rested lrst on country skies"
and your tirst impulse 10 find Yarmouth
only had so vulgar an inception as In
hunger for herring;
"or II frbt thy childish feet
Pattered DER a city street."
while you seldom got so good thing to
eat as herring, and you never wanted to
see Yarmouth save to come within tho
framing OF the picture Dickens had
painted, in either case do not make the
same blunder I committed some years
ago when first set out TO find the an.
Gent city. For England has two Var
mouths. In my guide book ! saw one
named, and l set out from London TO see
Iit. By rail came to Lymington, thence
across the Solent by steamer to the love-
ly, almost tropical, Isle Of Wight. There
was Yarmouth surely; p staid, prime,
pretty place, with the breath OF the sea
ever In its winsome face, with the chalk
cliffs OF England just across the blue
solent, and Berenely doing in its little
nook Of beauty and comfort, because Of
the aristncratic faCts that DR.. Robert
Hooke, inventor Of the pendulum spring
for watches, was born here. and that,
upon q time, when Sir Robert Holmes
was Governor OF the Island, a house was
built by him purposely for the reception
OF Charles H., for which loyal act the
good Sir Robert, after death, got his
figure cut in 6ne white marble, with some
nice Latin epitaphs on the pedestal.
But the real Yarmouth, the herring
opolis OF England and the home Of
Dickens Peggottys, is away around or
the east coast. It stands on a narrow
strip OF sand between the mouth Of the
river Yara and the German Ocean. The
same river separates the shires Of Suffolk
and Norfolk, TO the latter OF which Var.
mouth belongs. It houses perhaps
90 900 souls. Half OF these are in somI
way seaiariDg folk, or exist from somt
vocation relevant to seafaring, fishing OF
bodybuilding, The quaint old city IL
the .easternmost in England and thu
first object in all England touched By
y the morning sunlight is the TO yer Of ii
|, old parish church OF ST. Nicholas. III
har6or, macs OF fishing smackR ant
coasters, is the river mouth itself; anC
the Yarmouth Roads, always cresteC
with the foam OF sCudding, white.capped
choppy waves, is the rendezvous OF th,
North Sea British fleet. Steamers L
and from the Scottish and English east
coast ports; coasters with salt and coal
and the queer Dutch craft from Holland
directly oppoaite, ceaselCssly hovertnl
about the English ports or on their wa
to the Shetland Isles, to the Faroes, 1
Iceland, or to the Norway coast, forn
internlinSble ghostly passing procee
sions, cut cameo.like against the dar
eastern horizon, by day, and in th
moonlight OF peaceful nights, blende
into pale intaelios as OF mimic ioresl
set 10 bed Of steel and stars.
But at best this is wild, wailing, wot
iul coast and Yarmouth, which has tul
nished men and masts innumerable .
victims to the fury OF all seas, has SCENE
iated. to be the scene OF the oceans sac
dest tragedies. In 1892, in one night q
sail and ! 900 souls were lost by tempeI
In the Yarmouth Roads. In 1874 bI
tween 50 aud 100 sail and their crew
were lost in single day. A still large
number met thesa fate in 1880, An
only within the decade q similar horrt
occurred. 1t is regarded by all seame
as the most dangerous coast in Britain
and there Is only one other spot on q
globe recalling so many and ternpI
ocean catastrophes. That one Is SAB
Island, 100 miles south Of Nova Scott
known to sailors the world over as I'll
. graveyard Of the Del" Yarmouth new
! figured greatly in history though the
are some curious records Of its ear
days. It originated in the early part
Q the Anglo Saxon dynasty. It was 10
? little BRnd.bank then, where the BIZ
and Waveny rivers joined the fafmou
and together pushed to the sea. =,
Fishermen irequenting the coast bull
] few rude hus on the strip Of sand