WHITBY DRACULA WALK – WHITBY, ENGLAND BY JAMES ROSE
of the British seaside: fish and chips. So much so, the air is thick with the smell of vinegar and salt. While many holidaymakers come to this small har- bour community (pop: 13,600) to complete the day- long tour of historic sites – including the Captain Cook monument, the whale bone arch and the tow- ering remains of Whitby Abbey – there are a number of tourists who make the journey for a more sinister reason. The gift shop windows provide the first clue: placed alongside more typical trinkets, such as snow globes of the Abbey, are a tall, caped figure and small coffins whose lids are just opening. There are also many types of fudge made here with blood- red centres, which celebrate Whitby’s other great tourist attraction: Count Dracula. Bram Stoker entered into the pantheon of classic
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horror with his 1897 novel Dracula. Ever popular, the book is quintessential Gothic lit, featuring all the prerequisite imagery of the genre, as well as a dark and brooding narrative that retains the power to frighten to this day. From its foreboding start in Tran- sylvania to the Count’s arrival on the storm-battered shores of Whitby to his residency in London, the story of Dracula as laid out by Stoker was pivotal in establishing the generic imagery now associated with the vampire. The Irish author had begun researching and writ-
ing the novel prior to his arrival in Whitby in 1890. Whilst staying in a small inn at the river’s edge, he recognized the town’s Gothic potential and began to incorporate its geogra- phy, locations and past events into the developing narrative. While the Whitby that Stoker visited has long vanished, elements of what he saw remain – enough to warrant the publication of the Whitby Drac- ula Trail, a guidebook prepared in cooperation with the Secretary of the Dracula Society, Bernard Davies. The booklet contains a map and walking instructions for a self-
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espite the cold weather, Whitby is busy. The narrow cobblestone streets are filled with tourists browsing the town’s many gift shops. Most are eating the staple lunch
guided tour around the town’s locales featured in Dracula, along with descriptions of how the novel’s narrative converges with local history. As instructed by the guide, I begin my walk at the
Bram Stoker Memorial Seat. Fashioned in Victorian style, the bench is placed atop Spion Kop, the steep hill that overlooks the town and harbour, and is po- sitioned to approximate the view that inspired Stoker to use Whitby as the setting for Dracula’s ar- rival in England. I take in the sweeping panorama of the entire town with its many tiered houses, as well as the North Sea, the harbour, the Abbey and the iron bridge. It is an impressive start to the trail – even on a cold, grey day – and one that firmly places each of the novel’s locations into geograph- ical perspective. From here, it is easy to see why Stoker was so impressed by Whitby: the sea batter- ing against the high stone walls of the harbour, the townhouses dwarfed by the Abbey ruins, the narrow streets and rugged cliffs, all evoking a potential threat. It’s a town that seems to invite the super- natural. Behind me, the booklet explains, is East Crescent.
It is in one of these nine houses that the novel’s heroine, Mina, and her friend Lucy stayed for the duration of their summer holiday. Although the exact house isn’t mentioned in the story, number seven is. That’s the residence of a lawyer who Dracula employed to organize his passage to England. The trail then takes me down a steep, curving
path to Pier Road and into the busy harbour and fish market. I follow this road to the iron swing-bridge;
referred to as a drawbridge in Stoker’s novel, it is here that Mina crosses the River Esk when she at- tempts to find the seemingly possessed Lucy. Once crossed, the trail’s route splits in two – one path fol- lowing Mina’s flight up the 199 steps to the clifftop and the Abbey, whilst the other takes a brief detour to the Tate Hill pier and sands. I walk down the nar- row streets to the sands first. It’s on this relatively small beach that Stoker’s fic-
tional Russian schooner The Demeter crashes ashore. With the captain dead and lashed to the wheel, and his crew missing, the only sign of life onboard the ship is an immense black dog that leaps from the bow. As the guidebook states, Stoker based this scene on a real event; in 1885, a ship called The Dimitry floundered off the Whitby coast, shedding its cargo of coffins into the sea. The day after, the bodies therein were washed ashore, all in varying states of decomposition. It is these lit- tle details that truly make the Dracula Trail experi- ence come alive – and even more so when Davies expands upon the novel’s origins and makes con- nections with other supernatural aspects of the town’s folklore. For instance, when describing the dog that Dracula transformed into, Davies suggests a connection between the famed Yorkshire Barguest – a monstrous black canine – that is reputed to haunt Whitby’s streets after dark. I take the path back to the 199 steps that wind
their way up the side of East Cliff. It’s a hard climb, but looking back when I am halfway up provides the opposite view from the Stoker memorial bench, affording another impressive panorama. Mina makes her way up these steps when attempting to res- cue Lucy from her trance; at the top is St. Mary’s Church and graveyard. Catching her breath, Mina can see Lucy on their favourite bench. In the half-light she can also see a long, black shape next to her. Running to- wards her, Mina’s view is momentar- ily obstructed and when she reaches the bench Lucy is alone. It is here that the Trail ends, with the booklet describing the location of Mina and Lucy’s bench and the fact that the
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