Staithes (Photo credit: David Le Masurier)
Scans of Round the Coast 1895 are freely available from Rosemary & Stan Rodliffeat
http://www.thornburypump.co.uk/Coast1895/
They cover the coast of England and places in Yorkshire for which photos and commentaries are available are: Redcar, Staithes, Runswick, Whitby, Robin Hood’s Bay, Scarborough, Filey, Flamborough, Bridlington and Hull. The commentaries are fascinating because they provide some local history and describe the burgeoning tourist industry.
I love the original introduction which states:
We have not the least hesitation in placing this work before the English-speaking world, knowing full well that it would almost be impossible to find, throughout the length and breadth of our peerless Empire, a solitary individual who is wholly unacquainted with Margate, and Brighton, and Scarborough. We love our haunts by the sea; the poorest among us regards his favourite resort pretty much as the rich man does his country seat – as a place of relaxation from the hurly-burly of life, and yet a home withal. Therefore, we asseverate – and that without fear of contradiction – that it would be impossible to place upon the table in a British household a more interesting souvenir of happy days than this volume. It requires no great effort of the imagination to picture a few friends of long standing glancing through this work. How the eyes brighten at the sight of a familiar spot! And how vividly the old associations crowd back to the mind – memories of glowing, careless days, that gave new life to the jaded worker, and caused the brain-weary to forget their ineffable taedium vitae .
Related articles
- On the waterfront: Frank Meadow Sutcliffe’s Whitby (independent.co.uk)
