the mouth of each valley. But now that familiarity with these bridges,
which are of the same pattern across every wooded ravine up the
coast-line to Redcar, has blunted my impressions, I can think of the
picturesqueness of East Row without remembering the railway. It was in
this glen, where Lord Normanby's lovely woods make a background for the
pretty tiled cottages, the mill, and the old stone bridge, which make up
East Row, that the Saxons chose a home for their god Thor. [Since this
was written one or two new houses have been allowed to mar the
simplicity of the valley.--G. H.] Here they built some rude form of
temple, afterwards, it seems, converted into a hermitage. This was how
the spot obtained the name Thordisa, a name it retained down to 1620,
when the requirements of workmen from the newly-started alum-works at
Sandsend led to building operations by the side of the stream. The
cottages which arose became known afterwards as East Row.

A very little way inland is the village of Dunsley, which may have been
in existence in Roman times, for Ptolemy mentions Dunus Sinus as a bay
frequently used by the Romans as a landing-place. The foundations of
some ancient building can easily be traced in the rough grass at the
village cross-roads, now overlooked by a new stone house. But whatever
surprises Dunsley may have in store for those who choose to dig in the
likely places, the hamlet need not keep one long, for on either hand
there is a choice of breezy moorland or the astonishing beauties of
Mulgrave Woods. Before I knew this part of Yorkshire, and had merely
read of the woods as a sight to be visited from Whitby, I was prepared
for something at least as hackneyed as Hayburn Wyke. I was prepared for
direction-boards and artificial helps to the charms of certain aspects
of the streams. I certainly never anticipated that I should one day sigh
for a direction-board in this forest.