Grosmont, we come to the enormous heaps above the pits of the now
disused iron-mines. This was the birthplace of the Cleveland Ironworks,
and Grosmont was at one time more famous than Middlesbrough. The first
cargo of ironstone was sent from here in 1836, when the Pickering and
Whitby Railway was opened. However interesting Grosmont may sound in
books, it is a dull place; for the knowledge that the name was
originally Grandimont, from the small priory founded about 1200, and
named after the abbey in Normandy to which it was attached, does not
excite much interest when there is nothing to see but a farmhouse on the
site, and the modern place consists of a railway-junction, some deserted
mines, and many examples of the modern Yorkshire house.

Everything that Nature can do to make amends for this uninteresting spot
is lavishly squandered upon the valley, for wherever man has left things
alone there are heavy canopies of foliage, and mossy boulders among the
rushing streams; and if you will but take the trouble to climb up to the
heather, even the mines are dwarfed into insignificance. We will go up
the steep road to the top of Sleights Moor. It is a long stiff climb of
nearly 900 feet, but the view is one of the very finest in this country,
where wide expanses soon become commonplace. We are sufficiently high to
look right across Fylingdales Moor to the sea beyond, a soft haze of
pearly blue over the hard, rugged outline of the ling. Away towards the
north, too, the landscape for many miles is limited only by the same
horizon of sea, so that we seem to be looking at a section of a very
large scale contour map of England. Below us on the western side runs
the Mirk Esk, draining the heights upon which we stand as well as Egton
High Moor and Wheeldale Moor. The confluence with the Esk at Grosmont is
lost in a haze of smoke and a confusion of roofs and railway-lines; and
the course of the larger river in the direction of Glaisdale is also
hidden behind the steep slopes of Egton High Moor. Towards the south we