FLAMBOROUGH HEAD. 251 



greatest difficulty that a boat could be lowered from the Osprey, but pluck and perseverance 

 succeeded at last, and the valuables and ship's papers were, without delay, stowed away in the 

 boat. The mate and Charles Hayman were the first to embark in the tiny craft, which was 

 attached to the schooner by a rope, and the remainder of the crew were about to follow them,, 

 when a heavier sea than they had had as yet to contend against snapped the line and cast the 

 boat adrift. 



The waves washed over and into the boat, threatening to swamp it at any moment. 

 Hayman and the mate failed completely to bale the water out, in spite of their incessant endeavours 

 to do so, and Hayman, foreseeing the inevitable, stripped himself to the skin, and waited for 

 the moment to come when the boat would capsize. He did not have to wait long in his nudity 

 and the bitter cold ; the boat spun over, and carried both men under water ; however, they soon 

 rose to the surface, succeeded in reaching the boat, which was floating bottom upwards, and 

 clung to it with the despairing energy of drowning men. Heavy seas broke over them so 

 persistently that scarcely a minute was allowed them for respiration, and the mate, a weakly 

 man, with a low harrowing cry sank for the last time and for ever. Hayman battled on with 

 the courage of a tiger. The smack bore down to him in the teeth of the gale. He was 

 saved and succoured when death seemed about to seize him, and he was supplied with raiment 

 and stimulants by his noble rescuers, and eventually landed at Yarmouth. 



The sea has made, and still makes, many encroachments on the Norfolk coasts. Thus 

 at the not inconsiderable fishing station of Sherringham several yards of cliff have been 

 undermined and washed away in a few years' time ; and in 1810 a large inn, placed too near 

 the sea, was thrown in a heap of ruins on the beach. The coast onward to Cromer, a now 

 fashionable watering-place, protected by a breakwater and sea-wall, is extremely dangerous, 

 and between it and Yarmouth there are five lights. 



But we now approach a still more dangerous part of the coast the eastern shores of 

 Yorkshire. Flamborough Head first demands our attention. 



The Head is the termination of the chalky Yorkshire Wolds, and it is surrounded 

 by islands of chalk, showing plainly that the sea has cut them off from their former 

 connection with the land. The cliffs around Flamborough Head are riddled and tun- 

 nelled by the sea waves, and there are many arches and caverns. The " Matron of 

 Flamborough" is a fine pyramidal "needle," standing boldly out of the water. Under 

 the lighthouse are some remarkable broken cliffs, and then two great pillars of chalk 

 called the "King and Queen" arrest attention. One of the largest and most rugged 

 caverns is called "Robin Lyth's Hole," and it can be easily explored from the eastern 

 side. The Head is, therefore, specially interesting to the artist, and, for other reasons, 

 it is equally so to the naturalist. Crowds of sea birds startle the visitor, who is 

 doubtless regarded as an intruder, as they flock out from all the crevices of the 

 cliffs filled with their eggs, and cover both land and sea in their circling flight. The 

 somewhat giddy feat of descending the face of the cliff with the aid of ropes, for 

 the sake of the eggs, is one by which the Flamborough men gain their living in the 

 summer. "A more familiar hazard is run by the bold fishers of this coast, who, in 

 their little cobles, set forth from the north or the south landing to visit, perhaps, 

 the Dogger Bank, possibly to return no more. ' The sea gat him/ is too often the 



