wind-swept graveyard full of
blackened tombstones, need not keep us, for, although its
much-modernized exterior is simple and ancient-looking, the interior is
devoid of any interest. It is the same tale at nearly every village in
this district, and to those who are able to grow enthusiastic in
antiquarian matters some parts of the county are disappointing. In East
Anglia and the southern counties even the smallest hamlets have often a
good church, with a conspicuous tower or spire; but in how many villages
in this riding do you find no church at all, as in the case of Staithes
and Runswick? Many of the old churches of Yorkshire were in a state of
great dilapidation at the beginning of last century, and a great effort
having been initiated by the then Archbishop, a fund was instituted to
help the various parishes to restore their buildings. It was a period
when architecture was at a low ebb, and the desire to sweep away
antiquity was certainly strong, for those churches not rebuilt from the
ground were so hacked and renovated that their interest and
picturesqueness has vanished. The churches at Pickering, Middleton,
Lastingham, and Kirkdale must, however, be pointed out as priceless
exceptions.

The road drops down a tremendous hill into Sandsend, where they talk of
going 'up t' bonk' to Lythe Church. A little chapel of ease in the
village accommodates the old and delicate folk, but the youth and the
generally able-bodied of Sandsend must climb the hill every Sunday. The
beck forms an island in the village, and the old stone cottages, bright
with new paint and neatly-trained creepers, stand in their gardens on
either side of the valley in the most picturesque fashion.

The walk along the rocky shore to Kettleness is dangerous unless the
tide is carefully watched, and the road inland through Lythe village is
not particularly interesting, so that one is tempted to use the railway,
which cuts right through the intervening high ground by means of two
tunnels. The first one is a mile long, and somewhere near the centre has
a passage out to the cliffs, so that even if both ends of the tunnel
collapsed there would be a way of escape. But this is small comfort when
travelling from Kettleness, for the down gradient towards Sandsend is
very steep, and in the darkness of the tunnel the train gets up a
tremendous speed, bursting into the open just where a precipitous drop
into the sea could be most easily accomplished.

The stat