given us instructions to
put up at the Mermaid Tavern, near the harbor, and there we accordingly
stabled our beasts and made arrangements for our own accommodation. The
ship which we were expecting had not yet arrived, and was not likely to
come in before the next day, so that we had naught to do but look about
us and derive what amusement we could from the sights of the little
fishing town. Small as the place was, it being then little more than a
great cluster of houses nestling under the shadow of the high rock on
which stands Scarborough Castle, it was still a place of importance to
us, who had never for many years seen any town or village bigger than
our own hamlet of Beechcot, where there were no more than a dozen
farmsteads and cottages all told. Also the sailors, who hung about the
harbor or on the quay-side, or who sat in their boats mending their nets
and spinning their yarns one to another, were sources of much interest,
so that we felt two or three days of life in their company would not be
dull nor misspent. Moreover, the merchant, whose ship it was that
carried Sir Thurstan's goods, showed us much attention, and would have
us to his house to talk with him and tell him of our uncle, whose
acquaintance he had made many years previously, but had not been able to
cultivate.

There is, near the harbor of Scarborough, lying half-hid amongst the
narrow streets which run up towards the Castle Hill, a quaint and
curious inn known as the Three Jolly Mariners. At its door stands
a figure carved in wood, which at some time, no doubt, acted as
figurehead to a ship, but whether it represents Venus or Diana, Hebe or
Minerva, I do not know. Inside, the house more resembles the cabin of a
vessel than the parlor of a tavern. On the walls are many curious things
brought by mariners from foreign parts, together with relics of ships
that had made many voyages from the harbor outside, and had finally come
home to be broken up. In this place, half-parlor, half-cabin, there
assembled men of seafaring life: salts, young and old, English, Scotch,
Norwegians, and Danes, with now and then a Frenchman or Spaniard, so
that there is never any lack of interesting and ofttimes marvelous
discourse.

Our ship not having come in on the Tuesday night, Jasper and I, in
company with the merchant aforesaid, entered the Three Jolly Mariners,
and having saluted the assembled company, sat down to wait awhile, the
harbor-master thinking it likely