AMONGST THE SEA-BIRDS. 217 



a still further improvement. Soon we appeared at breakfast, 

 and did ample justice to the cod-fish cooked by Peter as 

 appetisingly as if Careme, or his pupil, Francatelli, had been 

 the chef- while the anchor was being hauled in, and the good 

 ship once more put under steam. The clouds rolled up, a 

 thundershower burst overhead, and the heavy plunging sea 

 assumed indigo colours as the waves were ruffled into foam by 

 the blast. The shore did not look cheerful, nor even picturesque, 

 and we wondered what manner of people could spend their 

 summer holidays at Withernsea or Horn sea. Doubtless they 

 have their compensations undreamt of by scoffing yachtsmen. 

 At Bridlington the grand cliff-scenery of Yorkshire commences, 

 though the lias runs north and south here in beds much lower than 

 i those above Filly. The place itself resembles a Dutch seaport 

 ' town, so quaintly is it built (of course we are alluding to the 

 old part, with the new terraces and big hotels we have no sym- 

 pathy), old, red brick houses jostling each other, and seeming, 

 from the bay, to face every way, a bustling throng in the streets, 

 ships with dark sails flapping idly in the harbour, irregular win- 

 dows, and stone staircases outside the houses, with the sea 

 lapping underneath them all this swept by a few sunbeams 

 under the dark cloud-canopy formed a pleasant sight to 

 artistic eyes. As for the new town, with its prim lodging- 

 houses and long lines of regularly built mansions, we will 

 only say that it brings out in stronger relief the charming irre- 

 gularity of the quay and its environs. The natives appear to 

 bathe largely here, if one may judge from the enormous num- 

 ber of machines drawn up, like regiments on parade, along the 

 shore. Captain Try, leaning abaft the funnel, looks on them 

 with silent contempt, and suggests that, if the weather hold up, 

 we shall be likely "to catch some whitening" (whiting). He 

 is a thorough old malaprop, and being once sent to a naturalist 

 with some parasites from a sea-bird, informed him, " master's 

 compliments, and he has sent you some Pharisees, sir." Sea- 



