Coast Scenery--A waning Mere, and wasting Cliffs--The Rain and
the Sea--Encroachment prevented--Economy of the Hotel--A Start
on the Sands--Pleasure of Walking--Cure for a bad Conscience--
Phenomena of the Shore--Curious Forms in the Cliffs--Fossil
Remains--Strange Boulders--A Villager's Etymology--
Reminiscences of "Bonypart" and Paul Jones--The last House--
Chalk and Clay--Bridlington--One of the Gipseys--Paul Jones
again--The Sea-Fight--A Reminiscence of Montgomery.
I was out early the next morning for a stroll. The upper margin of the
beach, covered only by the highest tides, is loose, heavy sand, strewn
with hardened lumps of clay, fatiguing to walk upon; but grows firmer as
you approach the water. The wheels of the bathing-machines have broad
wooden tires to prevent their sinking. The cliffs are, as we saw near
the Spurn, nothing but clay, very irregular in profile and elevation,
resembling, for the most part, a great brown bank, varying in height
from ten feet to forty. The hotel stands on a rise, which overtops the
land on each side and juts out farther, commanding a view for miles,
bounded on the north by that far-stretching promontory, Flamborough
Head; and to the south by the pale line, where land and water meet the
sky. The morning sun touching the many jutting points, while the
intervals lay in thin, hazy shadow, imparted something picturesque to
the scene, which vanished as the hours drew on, and the stronger light
revealed the monotonous colour and unclothed surface of the cliffs.
Towards evening the picturesque reappears with the lights falling in the
opposite direction.
A short distance south of the hotel, a stream runs from the mere to the
sea. The land is low here, so low that unusually high tides have forced
their way up the channel of the stream to the lake, and flooded the
grounds on both sides; and the effect will be, as Professor Phillips
says, the entire drainage of the mere, and production of phenomena
similar to those which may be seen on the other parts of the coast of
Holderness: a depression in the cliffs exposing a section of deposits
such as are only formed under a large surface of standing water. The
result is a mere question of time; and if it be true that Hornsea church
once stood ten miles from the sea, within the historical period, the
scant half-mile, which is now all that separates it from the hungry
waves, has no very lengthened term of existence before it. More than a
mile in breadth along the whole coast from Bridlington to Spurn has been
devoured since the Battle of the Standard was fought.
An old man of eighty who lives in the village says there are no such
high tides now as when he was a boy; and if he be not a romancer, the
low ground from the sea to the mere must, at least once, have presented
the appearance of a great lake. But the wasting process is carried on by
other means than the sea. I saw threads of water running down the
cliffs, produced by yesterday's rain, and not without astonishment at
the great quantities of mud they deposit at the base, forming in places
a narrow viscous stream, creeping in a raised channel across the sand,
or confused pasty heaps dotted with pools of liquid ochre. Mr. Coniton,
the proprietor of the hotel, told me that he believed the rain had more
influence than the sea in causing the waste of land, and he showed me
the means he employed to protect his territory from one and the other.
To prevent the loss by rain, which he estimates, where no precautions
are taken, at a foot a year, he at first sloped his cliff at such an
angle that the water runs easily down and with scarcely appreciable
mischief. Then, to protect the base, he has driven rows of piles through
the sand into the clay beneath, and these, checking the natural drift of
the sand to the southward, preserve the under stratum. Where no such
barrier exists, the waves in a winter storm sweep all the sand clean
off, and lay bare the clay, and tumbling upon it with mighty shocks,
sometimes wear it down a foot in the course of a tide. By this lowering
of the base, the saturated soil above, deprived of support, topples
over, leaving a huge gap, which only facilitates further encroachments;
and in the course of a few tides the fallen mass is drifted away to
enlarge the shoals in the estuary of the Humber.
Mr. Coniton entered into possession fifteen years ago, and in all that
time, so effectual are the safeguards, has lost none of his land. The
edge, he says, has not receded, and, to show what might be, he points to
his neighbour's field, which has shrunk away some yards to the rear.
The space between the hotel and the edge of the cliff is laid out as a
lawn, which, sheltered by a bank on the north, forms an agreeable
outlook and lounging-place, while gravelled paths lead to an easy
descent to the sands at each extremity of the premises. The house is
well arranged; there is no noise, no slackness in the service; and
families may live as privately as in a private residence. The charge for
adults is four shillings a day; for young children, half a guinea a
week, without stint as to the number of meals: to which must be added
the cost of rooms and attendance. The charges to casual guests are as
reasonable as could be desired, contrasting favourably in this
particular with my experiences at Hull and in certain of the inland
towns and villages. Ninepence a day for service and boots is charged in
the bill; hence you can depart without being troubled to "remember"
anybody. An omnibus arrives every day from Beverley during the
season--May to November. The distance is thirteen miles.
The falling tide had left a breadth of comparatively firm sand by the
time I was ready to start, and along that I took my way to Bridlington:
another stage of thirteen miles. The morning was bounteous in elements
of enjoyment: a bright sun, great white clouds sailing high across the
blue, a south-westerly breeze, which made the sea playful and murmurous:
all gratifying to the desire of a wayfarer's heart. I could not help
pitying those farmers at Beverley, who saw no pleasure in walking. No
pleasure in the surest promotion of health and exercise! No pleasure in
the steady progressive motion which satisfies our love of change without
hindering observation! No pleasure in walking, that strengthens the
limbs and invigorates the lungs! No pleasure in arming the sling against
the giant! No pleasure in the occasion of cheerful thoughts and manifold
suggestions which bring contentment to the heart! Walking is an exercise
which in our days might replace, more commonly than it does, the rude
out-door recreations of former times; and if but a few of the many
hundreds who put on their Sunday clothes to lounge the hours away at the
corner of a street, would but take a ten miles' walk out to the country
lanes or breezy moorlands, they would find benefit alike to their
manhood and morals. If I remember rightly, it is one of the old Greeks
who says that walking will almost cure a bad conscience; and, for my
part, I am never so ready to obey the precept of neighbourly love as
when my sentiments are harmonized by walks of seven or eight leagues a
day.
The sands are of varying consistency. In some places you leave deep
footprints; and nowhere is the firmness equal to that we shall find
farther north, except on the wet border from which the wave has just
retired. Mile after mile it stretches before you, a broad slope of sand,
sparely roughened here and there by pebble drifts. At times you see
numerous rounded lumps lying about of many sizes, which at a distance
resemble sleeping turtles, and on a nearer view prove to be nothing but
masses of hardened clay, water-worn, and as full of pebbles as a canon's
pudding is of plums. These are portions of the bottoms of lakes overrun
by the sea; stubborn vestiges, which yield but slowly. At times the
shortest route takes you through watery flats, or broad shallow streams,
where little rivers are well-nigh swallowed by the sand as they run
across to the sea. A little farther and you come to a low bank,
everywhere cut up by glistening ripple-marks, or to a bare patch of
clay, which feels like india-rubber under your foot.
And the cliffs taken thus furlong by furlong offer a greater variety
than appears at first sight. Here, the clay is cracked in such a way as
to resemble nothing so much as a pile of huge brown loaves; now it falls
away into a broken hollow patched with rough grass; now it juts again so
full of perpendicular cracks that you liken it to a mass of starch; now
it is grooved by a deep gully; now a buttress terminates in a crumbling
pyramid--umber mottled with yellow; now it is a rude stair, six great
steps only to the summit; now a point, of which you would say the
extremity has been shaped by turf-cutters; now a wall of pebbles,
hundreds of thousands of all sizes, the largest equal in bigness to a
child's head; now a shattered ruin fallen in a confused heap. Such are
some of the appearances left by the waves in their never-ending
aggressions.
In one hollow the disposition of the clay was so singular, and
apparently artificial, and unlike anything which I had ever seen, that I
could only imagine it to be a recess in which a party of Assyrian
brickmakers had been at work and left great piles of their bricks in
different degrees of finish. It was easier to imagine that than to
believe such effects could be produced by the dash of the sea.
The greatest elevation occurs about Atwick and Skirlington, places
interesting to the palaeontologist, on account of fossils--an elephant's
tusk, and the head and horns of the great Irish elk--found in the
cliffs. Farther on the cliff sinks to a mere bank, six feet in height,
but, whether high or low, you need not fear a surprise by the rising
tide, for you can scramble up anywhere out of reach of the water.
Looking inland from these points you see always the same character of
scenery, and where a path zigzags up you will notice large trays used
for carrying up the heaps of pebbles there accumulated, for the
construction of drains, fences, and walls. Among remarkable curiosities
are two large boulders--one of a slaty rock, the other of granite half
embedded in the sand. From what part of the country were they drifted to
their present position?
Here and there I fell in with a villager taking a quiet walk on the
beach, and leading two or three little children. One of them told me
that the Stricklands, a well-known family in Holderness, derived their
name from Strikeland; that is, they were the first to _strike_ the
_land_ when they came over. Collectors of folk-lore will perhaps make a
note of this rustic etymology. He remembered hearing his father talk of
the alarm that prevailed all along the coast when there was talk of
"Bonypart's" invasion; and how that Paul Jones never sailed past without
firing a ball at Rolleston Hall, that stood on a slope in sight of the
sea, where dwelt Mr. Brough, who, as Marshal to the Court of Admiralty,
had to direct the proceedings on the trial of Admiral Byng.
Here and there are parties of country lads bathing; or trying which can
take the longest jump on the smooth sand; or squatting in soft places
idly watching the waves, and exasperating their dogs into a fight.
After passing Skipsea, and the northern end of the Barmston drain, the
lone house in the distance catches your eye; the last house of Auburn, a
village devoured by the sea. The distance is deceptive along the level
shore; but when at length you come to the spot, you see a poor
weather-beaten cottage on the top of the cliff, and so close to the edge
that the eastern wall forms but one perpendicular line with the cliff
itself. You can hardly help fancying that it will fall at any moment,
even while you are looking; but so it has stood for many years; a fact
the more remarkable, as in this place the cliff projects as if in
defiance of the ruthless waters. Look at the old maps, and you will
read: "Here Auburn washed away by the sea;" and the lone house remains a
melancholy yet suggestive monument of geological change.
Now Bridlington comes in sight, and immediately beyond you see a change
in the aspect of the cliffs. The chalk formation which stretches across
England from Hampshire to Yorkshire, makes its appearance here as a thin
white band under the clay, becoming thicker and thicker, till at length
the whole cliff is chalk from base to summit, and the great promontory,
of snowy whiteness, gleams afar in the sunlight along the shores and
across the sea. The chalk opposes a barrier, which, though far less
stubborn than the volcanic rocks of Cornwall, is yet more enduring than
the clay: hence the land rushes proudly out on the domain of ocean.
Nearness, however, while it shows you the mouths of caverns and gullies,
like dark shades in the chalk, markedly shortens the headland to the
eye.
The last mile of cliff, as you approach Bridlington is diversified by a
pale chalky stratum, about four feet thick along the top. It dips down
in places basin-like, and contrasts strangely with the clay.
Bridlington Quay, as the seaward part of the town is named, though
situated at the very rear of the Head, is, as I saw on turning the last
point, not safe from the sap and shock of the breakers. The cliff,
sunken in places, exhibits the effect of landslips in rough slopes and
ugly heaps. Two legs of the seat fixed at the corner overhang the edge
and rest upon nothing, and you see that the remainder are doomed to
follow, notwithstanding the numerous piles driven in for protection.
The two arms of the pier enclose a small harbour, one of the few places
of refuge for vessels caught by easterly gales on the Yorkshire coast--a
coast deficient in good and easily-accessible harbours. A chalybeate
spring bursts from the cliff on the northern side; and near the middle
of the port an artesian well throws up a constant stream, varying with
the rise and fall of the tide. The noisy brook which you cross, on
entering the principal street, has its sources in those remarkable
springs which, known as 'the Gipseys,' gush out from the foot of the
wolds.
Bridlington attracts numbers of that class of visitors for whom Hornsea
is too quiet and Scarborough too gay. In fine weather, steamers arrive
with pleasure parties from Hull and Whitby, Flamborough Head being the
great attraction. The boatmen ask fifteen shillings a day for a boat to
sail round the Head, and give you opportunity to peer into caverns, or
to shoot seafowl should your desire be for "sport." And besides their
pay, the tough old fellows like to have a voice in provisioning the
boat, resolute to demonstrate how much your pleasure depends on "laying
in plenty of bottled porter."
The church, situate in the town about half a mile from the Quay, was at
one time as large and handsome as the minster of Beverley; but of late
years the visitor has only been able to see the remains of beauty
through grievous dilapidations, in which the hand of man was more
implicated than the weather. Paul Jones is still held responsible for
some of the mischief. Now, however, the work of restoration is
commenced, and ere long the admirable details and proportions of the
edifice will reappear.
Here it was that, attended by a convoy of seven Dutch vessels of war,
commanded by Van Tromp, Queen Henrietta Maria landed in 1643; and there
are people yet living who remember the terror inspired by the
redoubtable privateer aforementioned, while the North-American colonies
were battling for their liberties. On the 20th of September, 1779, a
messenger came in hot haste from Scarborough to Bridlington with news
that an enemy had been espied off the coast, and in the evening of the
same day the Yankee squadron was in sight from Flamborough Head.
Preparations were at once made to send the women and children into the
interior; money and valuables were hastily packed, and some of the
inhabitants, panic-stricken, actually fled. The drum beat to arms; the
Northumberland militia, then quartered in the neighbourhood, were called
out; and all the coasting-vessels bore up for Bridlington Bay, and
crowded for protection into the little harbour. Scarcely a town or
village on the Yorkshire coast but has its story of alarms and unwelcome
visitations from the American privateers.
On the 24th the timid population witnessed a sea-fight from the cliffs.
Jones, with the _Bonhomme Richard_, and the _Pallas_ and _Alliance_
frigates, intercepted the _Serapis_, of forty-four, and _Countess of
Scarbro'_, of twenty-two guns, convoying a fleet of merchant-vessels,
and at once commenced action. The two largest ships grappled, and fired
into each other for two hours, the two frigates meanwhile sailing round,
and doing their best to cripple the Englishman. The American at length
struck; but only as a feint, for when the crew of the _Serapis_ boarded,
they fell into an ambush prepared for them, and suffered so much loss,
that the _Serapis_ hauled down her colours, and the _Countess of
Scarbro'_ was taken by the _Pallas_. The victory, however, was dearly
won: the _Bonhomme Richard_ lost three hundred men in killed and
wounded, and was so grievously cut up in her hull, that the next day she
went to the bottom. Captain Pearson, of the _Serapis_, in his despatch
to the Admiralty announcing the capture of his ship, had good reason to
write, "I flatter myself with the hopes that their lordships will be
convinced that she has not been given away."
The scene of three of Montgomery's sonnets is laid at Bridlington. Turn
to the volume and read them, before you go farther.