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THE HISTORY OF EASBY. 

 By the Late Bev. J. Hawell, M.A., F.G.S. 



Extracted from " The Stokesley and Ingleby Parish Magazine,'" 

 1901-1903, by J.C.F. 



"When I think of Easby I tbink not only of the Churcb and 

 tbe Hall, the village and the farms, but I think of the stream 

 and the hill and the solid rock which forms the foundation of all. 

 And in considering where I ought to begin in putting down a few 

 notes regarding Easby my tboughts naturally turn to that which 

 lies at the foundation — that which existed first. One might go 

 back a long way in tracing its origin. It is perhaps enough to go 

 back a few millions of years to the time when the rock over 

 which the Leven flows at Easby was being formed. The waters 

 of a sea then covered the site at Easby, a sea peopled by all sorts 

 of creatures. There was the big ichthyosaurus — a fish lizard 

 some 40 feet in length, not unlike those beasts depicted on the 

 pillar in Ingleby Church next to the West of the lotus-pillar. 



I have never found his remains at Easby, but I have got a bit 

 of his tail in Baisdale out of beds of about the same age, and on 

 the Coast at Staithes, I have found his ribs and paddles and 

 spinal column ; so I know be was on the prowl in the neighbour- 

 hood, seeking what he might devour — especially, perhaps the 

 Ammonite. I have found beautiful little Ammonites at Easby, 

 and I dare say that old Saurian reptile did the same, and enjoyed 

 getting there quite as much, a long time ago ; munching a 

 mouthful, measuring from one to six inches in diameter. I 

 have no absolute proof that this old scavenger of the ocean 

 loved this particular diet, but I know he liked fishes for I have 

 seen their scales still existing in his fossilised paunch, and a 

 school inspector once told the Ingleby school- children that a 

 lobster was a fish, and therefore I see not why we should not 

 call the Ammonite a fish. Besides the Ichthyosaurus may have 

 been no more intelligent that a school inspector, and may not have 

 drawn a clear distinction between two classes of animal life, 

 especially if he happened to be hungry. Now the Ammonite was 

 a sort of sea-snail akin to the pearly nautilus and his shell was a 

 beautiful spiral which reminded the men who gave him his name 

 of the horns of Jupiter Ammon. At Whitby they call this shell 



