THE ABBEY, PORT, AND LIGHTHOUSE OF WHITBY, YORKSHIRE.

country in 1595, by Sir Thomas Chaloner, who erected the first alum-work near Guisborough, twentyone miles from Whitby. It had been, for several ages before, a monopoly in the hands of the court of Rome, but Sir Thomas, having, during his travels in Italy, discovered that the mineral from which it was made, was the same as one which abounded on his own estate, engaged a number of the pope's workmen to accompany him to England. It is said that, to avoid the discovery of his purpose, he was obliged to convey them on ship-board concealed in large casks. The country adjacent to Whitby, throughout an extent of nearly thirty miles along the coast, and from eight to twelve in breadth within land, is an almost uninterrupted alum rock, lying at different depths.

The ship-builders of Whitby, have long been noted for building excellent vessels, and during the last war, this trade was carried on to a great extent. It is now, however, in a very depressed state. About two hundred and sixty vessels, admeasuring 42,000 tons, belong to the port.

The northern whale-fishery was begun here eighty years ago. It has fluctuated greatly, as far as twenty vessels having occasionally been engaged in it: at present there are only two. Mr. William Scoresby, father of the Rev. Wm. Scoresby, of Exeter, sailed from this port, from time to time, during a great number of years, and was, perhaps, the most successful whale-fisher ever known; having brought home, in twenty-eight voyages, five hundred and forty whales. The Rev. Wm. Scoresby himself, before he entered his present profession, commanded a vessel in the same trade; and his well-known work on the Arctic Regions, was the result of observations made during several voyages to these seas.

The Harbour of Whitby is very much protected by several substantial stone piers, which have, within the last few years, been greatly improved, particularly the principal pier, on which a handsome lighthouse, eighty feet high, in the form of a Grecian Doric column, was built in 1831, within the short space of eleven weeks, under the superintendence of the present ingenious engineer of the piers. This pier is about six hundred yards long, and forms a beautiful marine promenade.

The cliffs on the coast are generally very lofty and abrupt, and as the sea is continually encroaching on the land, large masses of rock frequently fall, and sometimes occasion fatal accidents*.

erect, in a particula pa of the harbour, a small
hedge or fence, of stake and yether (that is, slender
upright posts driven into the ground, and secured by
hazels intertwined horizontally, after the manner of
wicker-work). The bailiff to the lord of the manor
attends, and a man with a horn calls, " out on you!
out on you!" whilst the hedge is setting. The origin
of this custom has been ascribed in an ancient
legend, which has been often reprinted at Whitby, to
the murder of an old hermit at Eskdaleside, about
five miles from the town, in the reign of Henry the
Second. But the authenticity of this legend has
been disputed, and the custom is believed rather to
have arisen from the ancient practice of the tenants
of the Abbey lands, meeting annually to repair the
fence of a store-yard belonging to the convent, which
adjoined the river. The legend itself, with some par-
ticulars relative to the Abbey, may be found in the
notes to Marmion, in which poem the story is thus
introduced, in the conversation previously quoted.
Then Whitby's nuns exulting told,
How to their house three barons bold
Must menial service do;
While horns blow out a note of shame,
And monks cry "Fie upon your name!
In wrath for loss of sylvan game,

Saint Hilda's priest ye slew."
"This on ascension-day, each year,
While labouring on our harbour-pier,

Must Herbert, Bruce, and Percy hear."-Canto II.

THE PARISH MINISTER.

THERE is a charm in the week-day services of a parish minister, which has not been duly estimated either by philanthropists or patriots. He, in the first instance, meets with general, and I had almost said universal, welcome from the families-at least from those in the humbler classes of society. His official and recognised character furnishes him with a ready passport to every habitation; and he will soon find that a visit to the house of a parishioner is the surest way of finding an access to his heart. Even the hardiest and most hopeless in vice cannot altogether withstand this influence; and at times, in their own domestic history, there are opportunities, whether by sickness, or disaster, or death, which afford a mighty advantage to the Christian kindness that is brought to bear upon them. It is thus that nature and Providence may be said to act as the handmaids of Christianity, by the frequent openings which they afford to its officiating ministers; and of which, if he do avail himself, he is sure to obtain a vast moral ascendancy over the people. Even his courtesies on the way-side are not thrown away upon them; and little do they know of humanity, who would undervalue the most passing smiles and salutations which reciprocate between a clergyman and his people, whether as the symptoms or as the efficients of a cordiality the best fitted to soften the asperities of our nature, and so to cement and harmonize the jarring elements of a commonwealth. And his weekday attentions, and their Sabbath attendance, go hand in hand. A house-going minister wins for himself a church-going people. The bland and benignant influences of his friendly converse, of his private and particular affection, are enlisted on the A singular service is annually performed here by side of their piety; nor can we imagine a position of the owners or tenants of certain lands in the neigh-greater effectiveness than his, whence to bear on the bourhood. On the morning of Ascension Eve, they hearts and habits of a surrounding population.CHALMERS.

These cliffs, especially the beds of alum shale, abound in a great variety of fossil remains. Besides the different species of ammonite, and various other petrified shell-fish, some animals of the crocodile kind have been discovered. One of the most perfect specimens of these is preserved in the Museum of the Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society, which contains an extensive collection of the natural curiosities of the district. A large quantity of jet, likewise, is dug out of the rocks. It is found in compressed masses of from half an inch, to two inches thick. The manufacture of it into beads, rings, snuff-boxes, and other fancy ornaments, which was begun here nearly thirty years ago, has now become an important branch of business, about one hundred and fifty persons being employed in it.

A singularly melancholy occurrence of this kind happened, nearly twenty-five years ago, about ten miles north of Whitby. Whilst two girls, sisters, were sitting on the beach, a stone, which, by striking against a ledge, had acquired a rotary motion, fell from the cliff, and hitting one of the girls on the hinder part of the neck, severed her head from her body, in a moment. The head was thrown to a considerable distance along the shore.

Ir is an unaccountable boldness to reason against Him, who hath given us our reason, and to undermine His authority by those very powers, which were designed to promote His glory.

ANCIENT CASTLES.

As we intend to furnish accounts and engravings of various ancient Castles, a short memoir relating to English Castles in general, and to the manner in which they were built, may tend to give additional interest to the particular accounts.

Few castles, it is supposed, which are met with in our country, are of older date than the Conquest, (1066); for, although some such structures existed in the periods of the Saxons, the Romans, and possibly even the early Britons, they had by that time, wing to neglect or invasion, been reduced to such a ate of decay, as to be but of little use for the purposes of defence. "In those days" (that is, of the Saxons), says Dugdale, were very few such defensible places, as we now call CASTLES; So that, though the English were a bold and warlike people, yet, for want of the like strong-holds, they were much the less able to resist their enemies."

As soon as William the First had established his authority, he lost no time in building castles throughout England, and in repairing and enlarging such as he found here; for this, he had two reasons, -to guard against foreign invasions, and to protect his Norman followers, to whom he had allotted estates, from the resentment of the former possessors. The number of castles increased, as the feudal law, which William had introduced from France, gathered strength. The castles became the heads of baronies; each castle was a manor, and its governor the lord of that manor. The great Norman barons who held their lands from the crown had their vassals, many of them English, under them; and to tyrannize with impunity, it was necessary that they should fortify themselves by means of stone walls. In the troublesome reigns which succeeded, the barons and leaders of parties resorted still more frequently to this practice, and the number of castles, towards the end of Stephen's reign, amounted to eleven hundred

and fifteen!

The lords of castles had, in process of time assumed such a dangerous degree of power, not only oppressing and despoiling their weaker neighbours, but exercising even royal privileges, that Henry the Second stipulated for the destruction of many of the castles, and prevented the erection of others, except by the King's special license. Royal castles, for the defence of the country, were, however, erected, when judged necessary, at the public expense. These, as well as such as fell to the crown by forfeiture, were usually placed in the custody of some trusty persons who were called governors, or constables. They were also occasionally confided to the care of the sheriff of the county, who used them as prisons.

But although a view of the generality of these rugged fortresses, destined chiefly for the purposes of war or defence, suggests to the imagination, dungeons, chains, and a painful assemblage of horrors, yet some of them were often the scenes of magnificence and hospitality,

Where throngs of knights and barons bold
In weeds of peace high triumph hold;

or where, in the days of chivalry, the wandering
knight, or distressed princess, found honourable
reception; the holy palmer repose for his wearied
limbs; and the poor and helpless their daily bread.

The materials of which castles were built, varied according to the places of their erection; but the manner of building seems to have been pretty uni- | form. The outsides of the walls generally consisted of stones nearest at hand; the insides were filled up with fragments of stone, or sometimes, chalk, and a

large supply of fluid mortar. When the Normans found the remains of an ancient building on a site which suited them, they often added their own work, thus leaving a mixed piece of architecture of Norman and Saxon parts, with, not unfrequently, a quantity of Roman bricks.

The general shape and plan of a castle, depended on the form of the ground occupied: the favourite situation was, for the sake of security, an eminence, or the bank of a river. The names and uses of the different parts remain to be described, for a better illustration of which we have given the annexed engraving.

The first outwork of an ancient castle was the

barbican, (a word supposed to be of Arabic origin). This was a watch-tower, for the purpose of noticing any approach from a distance, and was usually advanced beyond the ditch, at the edge of which it joined the draw-bridge. The next work was the castle-ditch or moat, which was wet or dry according to the circumstances of the place: the former being preferred. When it was dry, there were sometimes underground passages, through which the cavalry could sally. Over the moat, by means of the drawbridge, you passed to the ballium or bayley, a space. immediately within the outer wall. This latter was called the wall of the ballium, and was generally flanked with towers, and had an embattled parapet. The entrance into the ballium, was by a strong gate between two towers, secured by a portcullis, or falling door, armed with iron spikes like a harrow, which could be let fall at pleasure. Over the gate were rooms for the porter of the castle; the towers served for soldiers on guard. When there was a double line of walls, as in the annexed cut, the spaces next each wall, were called the outer and inner ballia. Within the ballium were the lodgings and barracks for the garrison and workmen, wells, chapels, and sometimes even a monastery: large mounts were often thrown up in this place to command the neighbouring country.

On a height, and generally in the centre, stood the keep, or donjon, sometimes called the tower. This was the citadel or last retreat of the garrison, and was often surrounded by a ditch with a drawbridge &c., similar to those at the outworks, and with additional walls and towers. In large castles, it was usually a high square tower, of four or five stories, having turrets at each corner; in these turrets were the staircases, and frequently, as in Dover and Rochester castles, a well. The walls of the keep were always of great thickness, which has enabled them to withstand the attacks of time and weather; the keep, or donjon, being the only part now surviving of many an ancient castle. Here were gloomy cells, appropriated as the governor's state-rooms; the inmates, for the sake of additional strength, denying themselves the luxury of windows. openings in the wall served the double purpose of admitting a little light, and enabling those within to discharge their arrows at the enemy. The following account of the siege of Bedford castle, by Henry the Third, given in CAMDEN's Britannia, is interesting, as containing a summary of the principal portions of the building.

Small

"The castle was taken by four assaults: in the first was taken the barbican; in the second, the outer bail (ballium); at the third attack, the wall by the old tower was thrown down by the miners, where, with great danger, they possessed themselves of the inner bail through a chink; at the fourth assault, the miners set fire to the tower, so that the smoke burst out, and the tower itself was cloven to 68-2

that degree, as to show visibly some broad chinks; | former grandeur have been torn down for the sake whereupon the enemy surrendered."

of the materials, or for the purpose of building on the same site. The demolition of an ancient structure, when it can be spared, must ever be a subject of regret. The venerable ruins of castles, for instance, are not only historically curious, but, to the reflecting mind, they suggest a pleasing comparison of the present times with those when such prisonlike dwellings were erected, or again brought into use, when this country was harassed by the worst form of war; when the son was armed against the father, and brother slaughtered brother; when the lives, honour, and property of the people were subject to the violence and caprice of foreign barons and when it could not be said, as in a proper sense it is now not only said, but felt, that an Englishman's house is his CASTLE.

Castles, in process of time, soon became of little use as fortresses: the change in the art of war brought about by the invention of gunpowder, the more settled state of the nation, Scotland becoming part of the dominions of the King of England, the influence of our navy, and the abolition of the feudal system, all tended to diminish the importance of these ancient safeguards; and, with the progress of civilization and national improvement, we trace the gradual change in the construction of castles; till, by the admission of light and air, and some degree of ornament, the harsh and gloomy features of the massive Norman pile became softened down into the refined and comfortable aspect of the castellated house of the time of Henry the Eighth and Elizabeth. In the reign of Charles the First, however, shortly Having alluded to the attack and defence of these before the civil war, and probably with the prospect fortified places, we subjoin engravings of two of the of the awful events which followed in view, a com- principal machines employed on such occasions mission was appointed to inquire into the state of One is a Moveable Tower, in which the besiegers apthe ancient castles. Many of these, during the sub-proached the walls. It moved upon four small sequent troubles, were garrisoned and defended. Not a few were afterwards destroyed by order of the Parliament, and others were left to the ravages of time and weather. Some of these monuments of

wheels, and consisted of different stories, on each of which archers were placed, who annoyed the soldiers on the ramparts, while the men below worked the battering-ram against the walls.

The next is a representation of a terrible engine, called the Catapulta, which, by a sudden jerk, slung large stones and arrows with amazing force. In those dreadful times, there was also a machine in use, by which not only mill-stones but the carcases of dead horses, and even, sometimes, living men, were hurled among the enemy's ranks

THE MOVEABLE TOWER.

THE CATAPULTA."