Yorkshire Almanac 2025

Unedited excerpt

The excerpt in the book is shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

Went to Flamborough-Head. The town is on the North side, consists of about one hundred and fifty small houses, entirely inhabited by fishermen, few of whom, as is said, die in their beds, but meet their fate in the element they are so conversant in. Put myself under the direction of William Camidge, Ciceroni of the place, who conducted me to a little creek at that time covered with fish, a fleet of cobles having just put in. Went in one of those little boats to view the Head, coasting it for upwards of two miles. The cliffs are of a tremendous height, and amazing grandeur; beneath are several vast caverns, some closed at the end, others are pervious, formed with a natural arch, giving a romantic passage to the boat, different from that we entered. In some places the rocks are insulated, are of a pyramidal figure, and soar up to a vast height; the bases of most are solid, but in some pierced thro’, and arched; the color of all these rocks is white, from the dung of the innumerable flocks of migratory birds, which quite cover the face of them, filling every little projection, every little hole that will give them leave to rest; multitudes were swimming about, others swarmed in the air, and almost stunned us with the variety of their croaks and screams; I observed among them corvorants, shags in small flocks, guillemots, a few black guillemots very shy and wild, auks, puffins, kittiwakes *, and herring gulls. Landed at the same place, but before our return to Flamborough, visited Robin Leith’s hole, a vast cavern, to which there is a narrow passage from the land side; it suddenly rises to a great height, the roof is finely arched, and the bottom is for a considerable way formed in broad steps, resembling a great but easy stair-cafe; the mouth opens to the sea, and gives light to the whole.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Auk (2) W/G ·
• Birdwatching (1) W/G ·
• Black guillemot (1) W/G ·
• Coble (1) W/G ·
• Common guillemot (1) W/G ·
• Cormorant (1) W/G ·
• European herring gull (1) W/G ·
• European shag (1) W/G ·
• 📌Flamborough Head (5) W/G ·
• 📌Flamborough (3) W/G ·
• Kittiwake (1) W/G ·
• Ornithology (3) W/G ·
• Pennant, Thomas (1726-98) (1), Welsh naturalist, traveller, writer and antiquarian W/G ·
• Puffin (1) W/G ·
• Seabird (1) W/G ·
• Traditional fishing boat (1) W/G ·

All tags.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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Similar

10 July 1869: Bridlington sees the first prosecution under the Sea Birds Preservation Act

17 September 1963: As RAF Fylingdales’ early warning systems go live, Tory minister (and Czech communist spy) Ray Mawby claims that carrier pigeons will not be confused

30 July 1798: The homeward-bound Greenland whaler Blenheim fights off a Royal Navy press gang in Hull harbour, killing two boarders

17 August 1561: William Strickland arrives at Flamborough and interviews witnesses of the northerly passage along the coast of Mary, Queen of Scots

28 January 1847: Edward Stillingfleet recounts finding a “British” chariot burial during excavation of 100 Iron Age tumuli at Arras and Hessleskew on the Wolds 30 years ago

21 April 1883: Peter Inchbald observes nightingales at Harrogate for the first time, but their popularity is their undoing

25 September 1779: The Rev. William Whytehead writes from Hornsea to his cousin four miles away with news of the Battle of Flamborough Head

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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I think the blue-and-white-striped flag is artistic idealism, and that it reminds readers to the (ahem) barry (field) of thirteen azure (deep ultramarine) and argent (silver) on the canton of the flag given in 1775 by Abraham Markoe to his Philadelphia Light Horse, later the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry, which, according to Wikipedia, fought at the battles of Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, and Germantown, and which often served as George Washington’s personal bodyguard:

Link

Similarly, the stars and stripes design shown in The Life and History of PAUL JONES, the English Corsair wasn’t afaik in circulation or perhaps even existence in 1779, and reflects instead popular vexillology at the time and place of the book’s publication – Portsea in around 1820:

Link

What symbols was the so-called pirate/privateer Jones actually displaying that day? I’ve read an attempt to answer the question, but can’t remember where.

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