A singular customary duty, called "making the penny-stake hedge," is annually performed at Whitby, by certain tenants of the Lord of the Manor. It consists in driving a certain number of stakes, which, according to the ancient prescribed form, were to be cut with a knife of the value of one penny, on the shore of the south side of the Esk, at low-water mark, at nine o'clock on the morning of the day before Ascension-day, while a man with a horn blows, "Out on you! Out on you!" to the shame of the persons whose duty it is to drive the stakes. When it shall be full sea or high-water at nine o'clock on the day of performing this service, it was to cease; but as Ascension-day is regulated by the change of the moon this can never happen. This custom is of great antiquity, as the _horngarth_, the enclosure formed by the stakes, is mentioned about 1315 in the registers of the Abbey, in an account of certain disputes between the abbot, Thomas de Malton, and Alexander de Percy, of Sneaton. Tradition reports that this custom was imposed as a penance on three persons of the families of Percy, Bruce, and Allatson, who held lands of the Abbey, for having killed a hermit in the chapel of Eskdale-side, when hunting a wild boar which had there taken refuge. The penance imposed was the tenure by which they and their successors were to hold the Abbey lands. Leland, who visited Whitby a few years before the suppression of the monastery, describes it as a "great fisher town;" and he mentions that when he was there a new quay and pier were in course of erection. Until the establishment of the alum works in its neighbourhood, towards the latter end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Whitby appears to have been a place of little trade. As this new branch of commerce extended, the trade and population of Whitby steadily increased until it has attained its present importance. [Illustration: WHITBY. _FROM THE NORTH WEST_] WHITBY, FROM THE NORTH-WEST. The view of Whitby from the north-west, by Balmer, is taken from the sands near Upgang, between Whitby and the village of Sandsend. From this point nearly the whole of the west pier is seen, extending directly from the shore, and having a light-house near its outer extremity. Beyond the pier, and on the other side of the river, are seen the houses built on the sloping side of the cliff, and on its top the ruins of Whitby abbey, which "In solemn grandeur, calm and still, O'erlook the restless flood."