130 THE SEA-COAST. 



FILEY. 



The coast between Speeton and Filey Brig is not pictu- 

 resque. Its height diminishes as we proceed northward to 

 about 70 feet at Filey ; a height so moderate as to countenance 

 the notion that the Derwent may once have discharged its waters 

 to the open sea on the east, instead of seeking the Vale of York 

 through the gorge at New Malton. Leland (fol. 49) says, 

 " The commune opinion ys yet that part of Darwent Water ran 

 to Scarburge, but by excaving of two sides of hilles, stones and 

 yerth felle in great quantitie doun and stoppid that course/' 

 Whether this alludes to a supposed discharge of Derwent through 

 the cross valley below Hackness to Scalby, or by some other less 

 probable channel to Seamer Meer and Scarborough, I cannot 

 affirm. Many such conjectures may be made, but it is certain 

 that if we remove from the cliffs near Filey the alluvial and 

 diluvial covering, the Kimmeridge clays beneath will be found 

 excavated in several parts below the sea-level. Before the date 

 of these superficial accumulations, the Vale of Pickering may 

 have been a sea loch opening to the east ; and even after they 

 were deposited, and the vale had become an inland lake (as 

 Dr. Buckland has explained in the ( Reliquia? Diluvianae '), it 

 must have discharged to the east by Filey, if the gorge at New 

 Malton had not then been excavated. 



If Flamborough Head be (as Mr. Walker suggested) the 

 ' Ocellum Promontorium ' of Ptolemy, Filey must be in the 

 6y\/)u.evo9 #0X77-09, the ' well-havened bay' of the same author ; 

 owing to the protection of Filey Brig its rather flattering title. 

 That Filey has been a place of importance in early ages appears 

 by its large and handsome church ; that the tide of population 

 is now returning to it is proved by the many new and elegant 

 houses which have lately been added. The great attractions of 

 Filey are the firm and extensive sands, terminated on the north 

 by the far-projecting reef called (from the Norwegian) the 'Brig' 

 (see the Lithograph). This remarkable rock gives rise to mag- 



