The initials of the builder
and the date appear on the eastern side of what is now known as the
Beggar's Bridge. It was formerly called Firris Bridge, after the
builder, but the popular interest in the story of its origin seems to
have killed the old name. If you ask anyone in Whitby to mention some of
the sights of the neighbourhood, he will probably head his list with the
Beggar's Bridge, but why this is so I cannot imagine. The woods are very
beautiful, but this is a country full of the loveliest dales, and the
presence of this single-arched bridge does not seem sufficient to have
attracted so much popularity. I can only attribute it to the love
interest associated with the beggar. He was, we may imagine, the
Alderman Thomas Firris who, as a penniless youth, came to bid farewell
to his betrothed, who lived somewhere on the opposite side of the river.
Finding the stream impassable, he is said to have determined that if he
came back from his travels as a rich man he would put up a bridge on the
spot he had been prevented from crossing. It is not a very remarkable
story, even if it be true, but it has given the bridge a fame scarcely
proportionate to its merits.
CHAPTER III
THE COAST FROM WHITBY TO REDCAR
Along the three miles of sand running northwards from Whitby at the foot
of low alluvial cliffs, I have seen some of the finest sea-pictures on
this part of the coast.
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