1825 - Cole, John - Scarborough Guide
| Allusion | |
|---|---|
| Date | 1825 |
| Author | Cole, John |
| Title | Scarborough Guide |
| Mentions | Robin Hood's Bay; Robin Hood |
By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2017-04-21. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2021-01-07.
Allusion
"ROBIN HOOD'S BAY
is a small fishing town, thirteen miles north from Scarborough*, and is frequently visited by strangers, on account of the alum-works in its vicinity. The road to it is stony and uneven, over a dreary barren moor, and the hill at Stoupe-brow† is impracticable for a carriage. On descending this hill, from the moor to the sands at Robin Hood's Bay, the road passes the alum-works, where the curiosity of the traveller is gratified with a view of those immense mountains of alum-stone from which the salt is extracted; and the interior works are worthy of observation.
"The road from the alum-works to the village of Robin Hood's Bay, is along the sandy beach, close under a high,steep cliff, to which the sea flows as the tide advances, and the passage is unsafe, except there be a spacious area of the sand uncovered by the water, or the tide be receding. [p. 89:]
"The Sea-coast northward from Scarborough is craggy, wild, and terrific, bending inward as far as the River Tees, and by its winding, forming this bay, nearly a mile in breadth. The sands here, are firm and level; but the shore, at a little distance from the Cliff, is rocky; and there is only a narrow passage from the sea, where the fishing boats can land in safety.
"The village consists of the habitations of fishermen, and once made a grotesque appearance, the houses being strangely scattered over the face of a steep cliff, and some of them hanging in an awful manner on the projecting ledges of the precipice; but this place has lately sustained a great alteration by the falling of the cliff; in consequence of which, the projecting houses and the pavement of the principal street as far as the fronts of the houses on the opposite side, are ruined, and a new road has been made from the landing-place through the interior part of the town. The village derives its name from that famous outlaw, Robin Hood."[1]
Source notes
Italics and quotation marks as in printed source. IRHB's brackets.
Footnote *: "Between Scarborough and Robin Hood's Bay are only two villages; Burniston four miles, and Clougnton five miles from Scarborough. There is nothing worthy of note at these places, except a quarry of freestone at the latter, from whence the Castle of Scarborough is said to have been built."
Footnote †; "About two miles from Robin Hood's Bay."
Lists
- Not included in Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976), pp. 293-11.
- Outside scope of Sussex, Lucy, compil. 'References to Robin Hood up to 1600', in: Knight, Stephen. Robin Hood: A Complete Study of the English Outlaw (Oxford, UK; Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell, 1994), pp. 262-88.
Editions
Also see
Notes