30 COUNTRY ESSAYS. 



contented with the sea itself, to say nothing of the varied range 

 of likings between these extremes, the United Kingdom offers 

 an endless choice of sea-towns, each with its distinctive features. 

 That isolation which pleases Germans at Heligoland may be 

 obtained by Englishmen at Rothesay, Colonsay, and many 

 other places in the West of Scotland, or in Inishmurray and 

 the numerous other islands sprinkled round the West of Ire- 

 land. Other shores are renowned for sands or for fine sea, for 

 rock scenery, for fishing, for fashion, for boating, for every pos- 

 sible form of pleasure connected with the sea. If one English 

 place were to be named where all the varied charms of seaside 

 life could be enjoyed in the greatest perfection, Whitby must 

 take precedence of all others. To the attractions of breezy 

 heights, a fine river, and inland walks of rare beauty, it adds 

 temptations to the bather, artist, antiquarian, and geologist, 

 pleasant society owning little allegiance to the tyranny of fashion, 

 the finest of sea and waves, an old town which carries the visitor 

 back to the Middle Ages, a new one of which every stone tells 

 of Hudson, the railway king, a churchyard set on so high a cliff 

 that Sic itur ad astra might be inscribed on the steps leading 

 up to it, an abbey of which the graceful ruins areredolent of the 

 piety of Elfleda and St. Hilda, of St. John of Beverley and St. 

 Wilfrid of York. Here, too, the great Council of Streaneshalch 

 was held, a cardinal event in English ecclesiastical history, and 

 the curious service of the three barons alluded to in Marmion 

 was rendered. Altogether it is unique amongst English water- 

 ing-places. If the archaeologist desire still earlier memories, let 

 him visit quaint little Boscastle, the "silent tower" of Bottreaux, 

 and, above all, 



' ' Tintagil, half in sea and high on land, 

 A crown of towers," 



or Milton's "great vision of the guarded mount." In short, if 

 a pilgrimage to the English cathedrals is to read the history of 

 the land carved in stone, it may safely be asserted that the 



