A FORMER RAID AT WHITBY.
[To ran Eamon or vu ..Sracraron..]
SI11,—The following incidents, recorded privately by the chief actor therein for the information of his family, and subse- quently committed to print, in a work of which only a few copies exist, have a special interest at the present moment "During the later years of Charles the Second's reign, two Dutch frigates chased a Spanish vessel into Whitby River, and proceeded to land men in order to out the vessel out. Thereupon Sir Hugh Cholmley,a deputy-lieutenant, and Colonel of the train- bands, went down to the waterside, having, as he tells ne, 'only a cane in my hand, and one that followed me without any weapon: There he found one of the Holland captains, pistol in hand, calling to his men who were on board the Spaniard, to send a boat for him. Sir Hugh, nothing daunted, ' gave him good words, and held him in treaty till he got near him, and then, giving a leap on him, caught hold of his pistol, which I became master of: yet not without some hazard from the ship, for one from thence, levelled a musket at me; but I, espying it, turned the captain between me and him, which prevented his shooting.' The Hollanders, seeing who they had to deal with, fled out of the prize and got back to their own ships. But Sir Hugh, expecting en attempt at rescue, called out the adjacent trainbands. •We had,' be tells us, think, two hundred man on guard that night ; but then, so inexpert that not one amongst them, except some few seamen, knew at all how to handle their arms or discharge a musket.' The knowledge that armed men were on the watch had the desired effect, however, and the Dutchmen, after hovering off the place for two or three days, and hearing that their captain had been sent a prisoner to London, sailed away."
Clevedon. Commander H.N. (retired).
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