CHAPTER II 



EARLY YEARS 



Ten miles south of Staithes, on the Yorkshire 

 coast, framed between two mighty cliffs, lies the 

 very ancient port of Whitby. Built on the banks 

 of a pretty little river, the Esk, which falls into 

 the sea there, and dominated by the ruins of the 

 old Abbey of St. Hilda, Whitby, which once 

 bore the euphonious name of Streonshalh, seems 

 to have retained the imprint of the heroic age, 

 in the character of its old streets, its old houses, 

 and its old church, which is reached by a stair- 

 way of a hundred and ninety-nine steps. In its 

 stones and in its people it seems to retain some- 

 thing of the creeds, the legends, and the super- 

 stitions which flourished in those far-off days 

 when the Britons, the Romans, the Saxons, the 

 Danes and the Normans successively occupied 

 this corner of the Northern coast, so perfectly 

 situated and so solidly sheltered. 



In 1742 Whitby had a population of ten thou- 

 sand. It was an important shipbuilding centre, 

 and the biggest coal port in the district. It was 



also the port of departure for merchant ships 



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