PIRATES AND PILLAGERS 9 



first herringers ; and from Scarborough sailed some of 

 the earliest of trawlers. 



Scarborough and its castle have loomed large in con- 

 nection with North Sea fishers and fighters for nearly 

 a thousand years. In the eleventh century Harald 

 Hardrada, King of Norway, came and plundered the 

 north-east coast. His men, says Green, were farmers 

 and ploughmen ; his ships were the fishing-vessels of the 

 coast. The Norse king swooped down on the Yorkshire 

 coast. He fought the burgher-men of Scarborough, and 

 vanquished them with fire and sword before he sailed in 

 triumph up the Humber, to be slain in the fierce fight 

 at Stamford Bridge. From that time onward Scarborough 

 Castle, which came into being, was the scene of many 

 conflicts and strange happenings. Arising from one of 

 them was the old saying, " A word and a blow like a 

 Scarborough warning." In 1553, during Wyatt's Rebel- 

 lion, Lord Stafford's second son seized the castle by a 

 trick. On a market-day he disguised a band of his 

 troopers as countrymen, and craftily entered the castle 

 grounds. The sentries, assuming that the visitors had 

 come in the ordinary way of business, were unsuspecting 

 and unready, and it was not till they had been captured 

 and disarmed that they knew how badly they had been 

 fooled. While they were held prisoners the rest of 

 Stafford's force was admitted. For three days they were 

 in possession of the fortress ; then it was retaken, and 

 Stafford was beheaded in London for high treason. 



To-day the ruins of the castle crown the hill, which 

 has been altered almost out of recognition, even in recent 

 years, by the construction of the Marine Drive. While 

 that doubtful improvement was being made, there were 



