and a man of great taste and of public spirit; and his influence has largely contributed to the preservation of many antiquities relating to the borough. Another of these handsome mansions, now the Star Hotel, contains some very fine oak carving.
During the war with the great Napoleon a considerable addition was made to the importance of Yarmouth by its being made the chief rendezvous for the fleet, and Nelson (himself a Norfolk man) was frequently here.[1] In 1810 the ex-king of Sweden landed here, just as, three years before, Louis XVIII. sought a refuge on its shores as an exile, under the assumed name of Count de Lille.
A jetty was first built out into the sea at Yarmouth in 1560; but, having fallen into absolute decay, it was replaced early in the present century by the present building, which is consecrated to memory as the spot from which Nelson, Duncan, Gambier, Jervis, and many other gallant heroes, stepped on board their ships, when Yarmouth Roads were the rendezvous of the British fleet in the northern and eastern seas. When first opened, it ran 450 feet into the sea; but the sand deposited by the receding waves has reduced its length to about half that length at ordinary high-tides. Two handsome piers, one at the north and one at the south of the town, add much to its attractions; and Yarmouth is well provided with other places of amusement in the shape of a theatre, a public library, and some assembly-rooms, which are places of recreation during the summer season. To these must be added the races and regatta, and a more than fair proportion of reviews and public balls. Consequently, it is not to be wondered at that the annual visitors to Yarmouth in the summer and autumn are steadily increasing in numbers, and that it is found necessary year by year to build increasing accommodation for their reception. The fashionable season is the latter part of the summer and the beginning of autumn.
Yarmouth roads afford excellent anchorage, and they are seldom empty of a large fleet of merchantmen and colliers, though the numbers vary much, according to the state of the weather. We have counted as many as 1300 sail in the roads.
The anchorage is protected by the Scroby and Corton sands, which run parallel with the beach at the distance of something more than a mile from the shore. At very low tides portions of these sands are dry; but they are generally covered by a shallow depth of water which with the least wind, and often without any wind at all, is lashed into furious breakers. The beach itself, and indeed the entire coast of Norfolk, is most dangerous to coasters; as the tombstones in the churchyard can tell the visitor. When a storm visits this coast, it seldom leaves its work half done. Thus in 1789 no less than thirty-five vessels were driven ashore on the last day of October between Happisburg and Corton; and the records of the town relate that in the year 1692 above 200 sail of ships and at least 1000 souls belonging to the ports of Norfolk, including Yarmouth, were lost in one night between Lowestoft and Lynn. It is singular that it is not with an easterly gale that the greatest damage is done on the Yarmouth coast, though it lies so open to the east, the waves being broken and spent upon the sands in the offing. The severest storms are those which come up under a north-westerly wind, which forces up the waters out of the Northern Sea in vast excess of the average. Such was the case only so lately as the month of May, 1860, when the whole Norfolk coast was swept by a terrific gale, which strewed its sands with wrecks, and caused a sad loss of life. On that occasion even the life-boat crew felt that it was impossible for human hands to make way with their gallant vessel against the joint force of wind and tide, and were obliged, therefore, to leave several sufferers to their fate. Still, for the most part of the summer the sea is smooth and calm, and the bathing is safe, the ordinary tides rising and falling little more than six or seven feet.
Among the various public buildings of Yarmouth we should particularise the Town Hall upon the South Quay, built in 1716; the Naval Hospital, erected in 1809-11 at a cost of 120,000l., (now occupied as a Naval Lunatic Asylum); and the Armoury and Naval Arsenal, built under Wyatt in 1806, when Yarmouth Roads were the head-quarters of the fleet; it was calculated to hold stores for six ships and six sloops, and 10,000 stand of arms; but the establishment has recently been broken up, and the place turned into quarters for the militia. The Theatre was built in 1778; the Baths were opened in 1759, and the Public Rooms adjoining in 1788: the original drawbridge connecting the two quays together was erected in 1786. The Custom House, a handsome building on the middle of the South Quay, was formerly the residence of the ancient and respectable family of Sayers,[2] who still are well represented at Yarmouth. Besides the above, there was a curious and old-fashioned Guildhall at the entrance to the churchyard of St. Nicholas, but it has recently been taken down.
St. Nicholas, Yarmouth, is one of the finest and handsomest parish churches in England, and in its original beauty it could have fallen little short of St. Mary Redcliffe, at Bristol. It is 230 feet long, by 108 broad; and in its original design was cruciform, with a handsome tower and spire in the centre. Before the Reformation it was rich in its decorations and celebrated for the “Miracle Plays” performed within its walls; but its chief glory was a certain “Miraculous Star.” In the church-books we still find entries of items for “leading in” the Miraculous Star, and for making a new one: and for making a “thread line” and a new “forelock” for the “Paschal.” The organ of St. Nicholas is said to be the finest known, except that at Haarlem. There is in the church a curious and valuable library, and a desk of singular construction, so arranged as to turn round and present the books on any of the shelves to the reader’s hand without displacing others. The church was formerly rich in monumental brasses, but these- ↑ The visitor to Yarmouth will be much struck by the beauty of the Nelson Column on the South Denes: it is 144 feet in height, and was erected in 1817-18, by a public subscription in the county of Norfolk.
- ↑ One of this family, Capt. Sayers, when in command of the Revenue cruiser, Ranger, in 1817, captured a lugger of Folkstone, off the Yorkshire coast, with a cargo of smuggled silk, tobacco, &c., valued at £18,000.
