ppear. The path at the side of
the road develops into a very long series of steps, and in a few minutes
the narrow street, flanked by very tall houses, has swallowed you up.

Everything is very clean and orderly, and, although most of the houses
are very old, they are generally in a good state of repair, exhibiting
in every case the seaman's love of fresh paint. Thus, the dark and worn
stone walls have bright eyes in their newly-painted doors and windows.
Over their doorsteps the fishermen's wives are quite fastidious, and you
seldom see a mark on the ochre-coloured hearthstone with which the women
love to brighten the worn stones. Even the scrapers are sleek with
blacklead, and it is not easy to find a window without spotlessly clean
curtains. The little coastguard station by the opening on to the shore
has difficulty in showing itself superior to the rest in these essential
matters of smartness. However, the coastguards glory in a little stone
pathway protected by a low wall in front of their building. On this
narrow quarter-deck the men love to walk to and fro, just as though they
were afloat and were limited to this space for exercise. At high-tide
the sea comes halfway up the steep opening between the coastguards'
quarters and the inn which is built on another bastion, and in rough
weather the waves break hungrily on to the strong stone walls, for the
bay is entirely open to the full force of gales from the east or
north-east. All the way from Scarborough to Whitby the coast offers no
shelter of any sort in heavy weather, and many vessels have been lost on
the rocks. On one occasion a small sailing-ship was driven right into
this bay at high-tide, and the bowsprit smashed into a window of the
little hotel that occupied the place of the present one.

With angry seas periodically demolishing the outermost houses, it seems
almost unaccountable that the little town should have persisted in
clinging so tenaciously to the high-water mark; but there were probably
two paramount reasons for this. The deep gully was to a great extent
protected from the force of the winds, and, as it was soon quite brimful
of houses, every inch of space was valuable; then, smuggling was freely
practised along the coast, and the more the houses were wedged together,
the more opportunities for secret hiding-places would be afforded. The
whole town has a consciously guilty look in its evident desire to
conceal itself; and the steep narrow street