230 THE SEA. 



alike of the masses and of the " upper ten." Its position on the sea is charming, while at 

 an easy distance are any number of pleasant sea-coast and inland resorts. It has sprung up 

 from a little fishing- village to a town of at least 120,000 souls. One feature of the place 

 is the solidity and elegance of its public and private buildings, while its streets are the best 

 kept in the whole kingdom. It extends, with its suburbs Kemp Town and Cliftonville, for 

 four miles along the coast, and is in great part defended by a sea-wall. The celebrated 

 chain-pier is 1,130 feet in length ; while its Aquarium, already described in the proper place, 

 is the finest in the world. 



The climate of Brighton is temperate and mild both summer and winter, in the 

 latter season resembling that of Naples-; and to these facts is doubtless due its great 

 success as a resort for the invalid, debilitated, or fagged-out business man. Capital 

 bathing, boating, and yachting, are all at the command of the visitor; there are no finer 

 promenades anywhere ; while riding or driving on the Downs, or to the neighbouring rural 

 retreats (among them that most beautiful of England's ancestral homes, Arundel), is a treat 

 open to all whose cir6umstances are moderately easy. In the whirl and din of fashionable 

 life there one is apt to forget its practical connection with the sea, but it possesses a perfect 

 fleet of mackerel and herring boats, and several lifeboats, belonging to the Lifeboat Institution, 

 the Humane Society, and the town. 



In the year 1833, at New Stoke, near Arundel, the remains of an ancient boat were 

 discovered in the bed of what was formerly a creek running into the river Arun. It had been 

 constructed of half the trunk of an oak tree, hollowed out as the Indians of North-west 

 America do to-day. It was thirty-five feet four inches in length, by four feet six inches. In 

 1822, a still larger oak boat was found in the bed of the river Rother, near Maltham, Kent, 

 which was sixty-three feet by fifteen feet, half decked, caulked with moss, and had carried at 

 least one mast. 



These discoveries sink into insignificance with that made in 1880 on the farm of Gokstad, 

 not far from Sandefjord, a favourite watering-place of the Norwegians. A hill or mound, 

 which tradition pointed out as the burial-place of some mighty king or chief, was found to 

 contain the entire hull of an old ship of the Viking days. It is of course a very venerable 

 relic, being probably more than 1,000 years old. The Gokstad vessel, built entirely of oak, is 

 seventy-five feet long between stem and stern, and sixteen feet broad amidships; and appears 

 to be of a low build, drawing only five feet. The deals were riveted together by iron nails; 

 and the ribs, of which there are twenty, are connected with the deals at the top by rivets, but at 

 the bottom with ties. Amidships, in the bottom of the ship, is a heavy beam, both ends of 

 which are fashioned in the shape of a fish's tail. This beam served as a support for the mast, 

 of which there is still a piece standing in its place ; while the upper part, which had been cut 

 off, was found in the vessel. The mast appears to have been about twenty-two feet long. 

 Remains of two or three small boats were found ; some pieces inside the ship, and some pieces 

 close to it. In the fore part of the vessel a large copper kettle and water-cask were also 

 found, with remains of sails and ropes, and some large oars. She had been built for sixteen 

 oars. A hundred wooden shields had been once placed in a row under the gunwale of the ship, 

 corresponding to the number of the crew, the centre pieces of iron, or bosses, still remaining. 

 The arrangement of the shields is the same as that in the famous Bayeux tapestry, on which 



