vlad the impaler

A tour of Whitby, North Yorkshire.

 An amalgamation of photos from two day trips, in May and June.

You may remember Whitby from Bram Stoker's Dracula.

One of my most favorite books everrrrrr.

Whitby Harbo[u]r.

"This is a lovely place."

Whitby Crabs.

"It was on the dark side of Twilight..."


"The houses of the old town--the side away from us, are all
red-roofed, and seem piled up one over the other anyhow,
like the pictures we see of Nuremberg."


"Between the two piers there is a narrow opening
into the harbour, which then suddenly widens."


"Oh, why did I ever go to Whitby?"


"Doesn't like to be kept waitin' when the tea is ready."
 
"Then I looked around for the Count,
but with surprise and gladness, made a discovery."


"I used my knowledge of this phase of spiritual pathology."

"He found out that it amused me to hear him talk American slang."


"It almost seems as though the captain had been seized with
 some kind of mania before he had got well into blue water."


"I trust that your journey from London has been a happy one,
and that you will enjoy your stay in my beautiful land.
-- Your friend, Dracula."


"At the end of it is a buoy with a bell, which swings in bad weather,
and sends in a mournful sound on the wind."

"Dark figures are on the beach here and there,
sometimes half shrouded in the mist."

"Right over the town is the ruin of Whitby Abbey,
which was sacked by the Danes, and which is the scene
of part of 'Marmion,' where the girl was built up in the wall."

"One long granite wall stretching out into the sea."

Pause for a meal at the famous Magpie Cafe.


The Best Fish And Chips In Yorkshire.


"And the fishermen say that we are in for a storm."


"It is nice at high water, but when the tide is out it shoals away to
nothing, and there is merely the stream of the Esk,
running between banks of sand, with rocks here and there."


Cross to the other side of the harbour.

The coats of white all turn to red.

I want to leave this world, for a while.

Strange, she runs with the one she can't keep up with.

"I shall write some letters home."

The vampires are growing tired.

 

"He will only say, 'I don't take any stock in cats. 

 I have more to think of now.'"

"There are such beings as vampires, 

some of us have evidence that they exist."

"He can be as bat, as Madam Mina saw him
on the window at Whitby...

And as friend John saw him fly from this so near house."

"They are hospitable, with true Yorkshire hospitality."

 

"But we hid in a door...

Till he had disappeared up an opening 

such as there are here, steep little closes, 

or 'wynds', as they call them in Scotland."

Send me all your vampires.

From Marie-Antoinette...

To Whitby Jet.

Which goes from this...

To this.

"Them feet-folks from York and Leeds that be always 

eatin' cured herrin's and drinkin' tea an' 

lookin' out to buy cheap jet would creed aught."


The gorgeous jet ring I purchased from Ebor Jetworks.

 

And all the places that she's been along the way...

 "The steps are a great feature on the place."

 

"They lead from the town to the church, there are hundreds of them, 

I do not know how many, and they wind up in a delicate curve."

"The slope is so gentle that a horse could easily walk up and down."

 

"I think they must originally have had something to do with the abbey."

 

"There is another church, the parish one, 

round which is a big graveyard, all full of tombstones." 

"This is to my mind the nicest spot in Whitby...

 For it lies right over the town...

 

 And has a full view of the harbour...

 And all up the bay to where the headland 

called Kettleness stretches out into the sea." 

"It descends so steeply over the harbour

that part of the bank has fallen away...

And some of the graves have been destroyed."

That happiness which the world cannot give.

"Some of the flat tombstones, 

thruffsteans or through-stones, 

as they call them in Whitby vernacular..."

"There are walks, with seats beside them, through the churchyard...

And people go and sit there all day long...

Looking at the beautiful view and enjoying the breeze." 

 

In Memory of Elizabeth.

 
"I shall come and sit here often myself and work."

 

 "Indeed, I am writing now, with my book on my knee, 

and listening to the talk of three old men who are sitting beside me.  

They seem to do nothing all day but sit here and talk."

"Then as the cloud passed I could see 

the ruins of the abbey coming into view."

"It is a most noble ruin, of immense size, 

and full of beautiful and romantic bits."

"Last night I seemed to be dreaming again just as I was at Whitby."

"She says that as a child, she used to walk in her sleep, 

and that when in Whitby the habit came back."

"For I was afraid of something, I don't know what.
I remember, though I suppose I was asleep."

"There is a legend that a white lady is seen in one of the windows."

 

"He is, I am afraid, a very sceptical person, 

for when I asked him about the bells at sea...

and the White Lady at the abbey... 

He said very brusquely, 'I wouldn't fash masel' about them, miss. 

Them things be all wore out.'"

 

"I admit that at the first I was sceptic."

 

 "Were it not that through long years I have trained myself to keep an
open mind, I could not have believed until such time as that
fact thunder on my ear."

 

All the vampires, walking through the valley.

 

 Send me all your vampires...
xx