creditors. During this
process he had been forced to live very quietly, and had incidentally
sifted out his real friends from among his relations and acquaintances.
Thus, it is with pardonable pride that he says: 'Having mastered my
debts, I did not only appear at all public meetings in a very
gentlemanly equipage, but lived in as handsome and plentiful fashion at
home as any gentleman in all the country, of my rank. I had between
thirty and forty in my ordinary family, a chaplain who said prayers
every morning at six, and again before dinner and supper, a porter who
merely attended the gates, which were ever shut up before dinner, when
the bell rung to prayers, and not opened till one o'clock, except for
some strangers who came to dinner, which was ever fit to receive three
or four besides my family, without any trouble; and whatever their fare
was, they were sure to have a hearty welcome. Twice a week, a certain
number of old people, widows and indigent persons, were served at my
gates with bread and good pottage made of beef, which I mention that
those which succeed may follow the example.' Not content with merely
benefiting the aged folk of his town, Sir Hugh took great pains to
extend the piers, and in 1632 went to London to petition the
'Council-table' to allow a general contribution for this purpose
throughout the country. As a result of his efforts, 'all that part of
the pier to the west end of the harbour' was erected, and yet he
complains that, though it was the means of preserving a large section of
the town from the sea, the townsfolk would not interest themselves in
the repairs necessitated by force of the waves. 'I wish, with all my
heart,' he exclaims, 'the next generation may have more public spirit.'

Sir Hugh Cholmley also built a market-house for the town, and removed
the bridge to its present position. Owing to rebuilding, neither of
these actual works remains with us to-day, but their influence on the
progress of Whitby must have been considerable.

On a June morning in the year after Sir Hugh had settled down so
handsomely in his refurbished house, two Dutch men-of-war chased into
the harbour 'a small pickroon belonging to the King of Spain.' The
Hollanders had 400 men in one ship and 200 in the other, but the
Spaniard had only thirty men and two small guns. The Holland ships
proceeded to anchor outside the harbour, and, lowering their longboats,
sent ashore forty men, all armed with pistols. But