The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-08-27

Discoverer-A Gray Old Town of
Gray Old Stairs Jumbled About the
Finest Beach in Europe-Its Ancient
Castle Ruins and Modern Character
full Crowds.
Copyright 1897
Scarborough, England, Aug. 12.-Scar-
borough, over here on the North sea, is
the greatest seaside resort on the eastern
coast of England For vast crowds it is
like Southport on the west, and Brighton
on the south coast II has been a water
ing place for nearly $50 years. Before
that good fortune it was little else than a
dreary fishing port, with a great, grim
castle dominating hamlet and harbor
and a wise woman, who used her eye
sight and other Senses, was primarily
responsible for Scarborough's trans
formation from obscurity to opulence and
renown.
Mrs. Farrow, sensible and intelli-
gent lady, who lived at Scarborough,
about the year 1850, sometimes walked
along the shore, and observing the stones
over which the waters from a cliff-side
spring. passed to have received a russell
GOlOI, anu nIulIlE IL 10 nave an dClu UdSbS
different from the common springs, and to
receive a purple tincture from gals,
thought it might probably have me-
dicinal property. Having, therefore, made
an experiment herself, and persuaded
others to do the same, it was found to be
eticacious in some complaints, and be-
came the usual physic of the inhabitants
1t was afterwards in great reputation
with the citizens of York, and at length
was so generally recommended that per-
sons Of quality came from great distance
to drink it preferring it before all others
they had formally frequented, even the
Italian, French and German spaws."
Thus runs the ancient, ungrammatic
but truthful chronicle, Dame FarrOw
has only few lines in Scarborough local
history and no monument. These are
the only really mean things you will
find about the winsOme old town. The
"spaw" the good dame discovered is a
spa which has a curious history of its
own. Nearly fifty years after its discov-
cry, the spa was provided with cisterns
or wells for collecting the waters. To
protectlthese from the encroachment of
the sea, a stout staith of stone bound by
timbers was erected around the wells
Forty years later q great mass of the cliff
above, containing nearly an acre of pas
ture land, sunk perpendicularly for sew
eral yards. AS this huge mass of cliff
went down, the sand about the staith,
some distance from the subsiding cliff,
shot up into the air to a height of from
80 to so feet, an entire mass nearly 100
feet broad and 800 feet long. The wells
assembled with the sstaith and sand, but
the spa itself was lost completely, and
was only recovered after long and dill
gent search, and great expense upon the
part of the inhabitants. Local folklore
holds to the belief that this was just
judgment for Scarboroughs ingratitude
in forgetting its debt of obligation to
Dame Farrow.
But after knowing Scarborough, I be-
lieve had there been no Dame Farrow,
and no "spaw;n no earthquakes and no
rediscovery; no grand Spa Saloon in the
Italian-Renaissanc style, accommoda-
ting several thousand people, opened by
the Lord Mayor of London; no spacious
promenades or grand Cliff Bridge across
the shadowy ravine; no grand aquarium,
said to be the finest in the world; no
splendid orchestra of 200 to 300 perform
ers; no broad sea-wau promenade, and
no countless sheltered walks, grottoes
and bowers; and no high-sounding names
of North Chalybeate and South Salt-well,
that the glorious face Scarborough sets
to the German ocean, its finest beach in
Europe, and all the magicit takes from the
mighty sea, would have made the charm
ing old town all that it now is to
countless thousands who loiter here for
pleasure, rest or health. For back OF
ancient Scarborough town is Manchester
and Keighley and Bradford and Wake
field and York and understood and
Leeds, humming with spindles and clang-
ing with cranes, and the coal pits of Lam
cashire and Yorkshire and Motifs. where
there are hundreds of thousands of
strivers, white or grimy from iendless
toll. Often there are half an hundred
thousand of such as these at Scarborough.
II is at such times that one may know, if
he will use his eyes, how precious thing
is the CLINT of the waves, the cool touch of
the golden sands, the whispered lullaby
and mysteries of the sea, and all the ben
eticence of Gods blessed sunlight kissing
through life-giving airs the pallor from
out of these toil-scarred faces, to unused.
eager eyes and haunted hungry hearts.
Scenically considered, Scarborough and
harbor remind you instantly of Naples
and its wondrous bay. Were it not for
the Hydrologic, historic and poetic asso-
Citations with which all the beautiful en-
virons of Naples are rife, flavor of which
cannot but at some time and in some way
touch the fancy of every traveller of sym
pathetic and receptive mind, l believe old
Scarborough and harbor, at least when
viewed from the sea, would prove to the
beholder more beautiful scene. Like
the bay of Naples, Scarborough harbor
has noble, crescent-shaped sweep from
cliff to headland. 1t has not mysterious
and awful Vesuvius behind, but 10 has a
second crescent of verdure-clad hills. a
circling thread of emerald above the
checkered line of white and red where
nestle its comfortable ancient homes. 1t
has no POsilipo above whose vineyard
heights were the Georges and the Hineid
composed and where still sleeps a gentle
Virgil, but dreadful and weird were its
scOurges and sieges from the time of
Harold Hadrada to the first Charles 1t
had no Tasso as had the olive and chest
nut groves of Naples Sorrento. But the
splendid ruins of its once majestic head
land castle preserve, in the fact of his
years Imprisonment here, the memory of
one who accomplished as much for hui
manity as Virgil aud TassO together-the
brave and gentle founder of the Society
of Friends; and somehow, in all the
splendid scene. wlale you may miss the
half oriental color of the dazzling view
beneath Italian skies, there comes to YOU
a heartier, nohler sense of kinship with
habitation and humankind, earth and sky
and ocean, that win completely to the
brave old Saxon town which sets on
Roman walls beside the Northern sea.
From Castle Hill the South Sands cir
Gle away nearly two miles to the south
The foreshOre is fully fourth of mile
in width, with the gentlest possible dec
lination into the sea, and each receding
tide leaves it a. ernoofb hard ond a,uoat