WILLIAMSON: JOHN WILLIAMSON. 
297 
written by my father, in which he tells me that his only recollections 
of my great-grandfather, is that of an old man living in a small 
cottage in the village of Fridaythorpe, on the Yorkshire Wolds. 
My grandfather, born at Fridaythorpe, was for many years shepherd 
to some of the large farmers of that district ; he was a hard-working, 
saving man, who took little pleasure beyond an annual visit to 
York, or an evening chat with friends at the Fridaythorpe Inn 
where 
"Village statesmen talked with looks profound, 
And news much older than their ale went round." 
Of this Inn the young shepherd presently became landlord. His busi- 
ness frequently took him to Driffield, where he met with his future 
wife, Mary Bean, the sister of a market gardener (the father of 
Wm. Bean, the geologist), who resided at Brompton, near Scar- 
borough. After marriage, the young couple lived at the Fridaythorpe 
Inn for several years, and here John Williamson was born in 1784. 
Not finding the Inn financially successful, the family removed to Scar- 
brough, whither, meanwhile, the Brompton gardener had also 
removed, having purchased an extensive plot of land. This purchase, 
as the possession of one naturalist, and the training ground of 
another, acquires some interest to us. It appears to have been 
bounded by what is still Huntress Row ; by the road leading from 
the southern end of that row through Belvoir Terrace nearly to 
the *' Plantation;" by a line parallel with the Plantation itself ; and 
by the York Road from the northern end of that line to the corres- 
ponding end of Huntress Row. This plot, now of almost priceless 
value, was then purchased for a few hundreds of pounds. Mr. Bean 
laid it out partly as a market garden, and partly as a subscription 
strawberry garden, in which latter capacity it became the fashionable 
promenade of the watering place. A relic of these gardens existed 
in my own boyhood, in which I bought fruit on Sundays, and 
cabbages for my rabbits on week-days. The death -knell of these 
gardens was sounded in 1826, when the foundation stone of Christ 
Church was laid in their very centre. 
At the age of about nine years, my father was sent to work in 
these gardens under the care of his uncle, their proprietor. As may 
