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Another quiet day for Hi Ho. It was totally fogged in when we got up at 6:30, but the fog dissipated early on. Still, it was an overcast day. We decided to walk down to Pannett Park, just ¼ mile from the Metropole. Pannett Park is home to the Pannett Art Gallery and the Whitby Museum which “houses a stunning variety of collections and artifacts”. There are also panoramic views of the town and Whitby Abbey from the museum terrace.
The Whitby Museum is the highlight here. While it’s not a huge museum, it has a fascinating collection of, well, a bit of everything: geology exhibits, fossils, stuffed birds and mammals, clocks, porcelain and ceramics, jet (more below), maps, photographs, pressed flowers, whaling history, navigational sciences, shipping history, ship models, clocks and watches, coins, medals, toys, dolls, doll houses, weapons, costumes, ships in bottles and light bulbs, and last but not least, the Hand of Glory (more below).
Pictures will tell most of the story, but a few words about three things:
1) Whitby Jet is a type of lignite, a precursor to coal and is considered a gemstone. Jet is not a mineral, but rather a mineraloid. It has an organic origin, being derived from decaying wood under extreme pressure. Whitby jet is the fossilized wood from a species of tree similar to the Chile pine or Monkey Puzzle tree.
2) Ah, the Hand of Glory – a new one on me – is the dried and pickled hand of a man who has been hanged, often specified as being the left (Latin: sinister) hand, or, if the man were hanged for murder, the hand that did the deed.
“Old European beliefs attribute great powers to a Hand of Glory combined with a candle made from fat from the corpse of the same malefactor who died on the gallows. The candle so made, lighted, and placed (as if in a candlestick) in the Hand of Glory, would have rendered motionless all persons to whom it was presented. The process for preparing the hand and the candle are described in 18th century documents, with certain steps disputed due to difficulty in properly translating phrases from that era. The concept inspired short stories and poems in the 19th century.”
3) There are a group of model ships that were all carved by French prisoners of war during the Napoleanic War out of bones from the meat rations that were served to them.
Then we walked on down through the Park and into town again. Today is the last day of England’s school break week, and people have already apparently started home. While still busy, it was much less crowded than yesterday. There was no line at Trenchers as there was yesterday, so we decided to stop in for fish and chips. We enjoyed them here last year. Trenchers has a take out counter but the restaurant section is large and .very well appointed. The fish and chips are unbeatable. They also serve draft Staropramen beer, so I had a pint. Staropramen is the second largest brewery in the Czech Republic and is now owned by the Molson Coors Group.
On the way home we stopped at a pier-side seafood stand and bought little pots of crayfish, mussels, and langoustine tails that we will enjoy as the main part of our dinner at home tonight.
It looks like you were still busy on a quiet day. The fish and chips are one of my favorites. They look great over there. We need overcast days and rain. Fires still in CO and in NM by Cimmaron and Angel Fire. Need moisture badly, send some please. XO