ROBIN HOOD'S BAY. THE PEAK. 137 



Scarborough and Whitby, and thus at least approach the Peak 

 and Bay Town. For bold pedestrians, however, there can hardly 

 be a pleasanter walk than along the cliffs from Whitby or Scar- 

 borough to Robin Hood's Bay. 



ROBIN HOOD'S BAY. WHITBY. 



The cliffs which guard the coast to the northward of Blue 

 Wick, are of a different composition and aspect from those which 

 have already been described. They exhibit almost universally, in 

 their lower part, a mass of laminated Lias shale, and very generally 

 on the top a crown of gritstone. The shale wasted by the rough 

 sea perishes, though not very rapidly, and the crown of sand- 

 stone falls, though not often. The permanent effect of these 

 circumstances is a formidable steepness in the whole range of 

 these dark cliffs, which even at low water are margined by only 

 a narrow belt of sands, or a scar of rugged rock safe only to 

 those who take heedful note of the tide. 



A little north of Blue Wick, the highest part of the cliff, the 

 ' Old Peak/ overlooks the water. 



At Ravenshill, on the Peak, an inscribed stone was dug up in 

 1774, from which Dr. Young concluded that a Roman fort had 

 been constructed at Peak, "probably one of a chain of forts 

 erected along the coast, to repel the incursions of the Saxons and 

 other pirates*." 



IVSTINIANVS P P Justinianns P P 



VINDICIANVS Vindicianus 



MASBIERIVPR 



M CASTRVM FECF M . the fort constructed. 



A O 



If Justinianus was the officer who accompanied Constantino 

 from Britain into Gaul, A.D. 407 or 408, and was slain in battle 

 by Sarus, the monument may be dated a little earlier. The name 

 of Vindicianus occurs on the sarcophagus found at Easiness, 



* Young's Whitby, vol. ii. p. 709. 



