Joseph writes to Hannah Rowntree

Joseph wrote to his sister, Hannah, on 1st September 1919 about a holiday he had enjoyed at Goathland on the North Yorkshire Moors. His love of nature and the countryside and his keen sense of observation shine through in his writing – “Our finest motor drive was on the high moor, where we had heather on either side of the road, and, if the day were clear, a view of the sea. After riding for some miles you get a commanding view of Whitby Abbey (St. Hilda’s), a good deal damaged by the bombardment, and soon the town of Whitby itself. There is a sudden descent from the high land, where heather and bracken is the surrounding vegetation, to the village of Staithes, with its beautiful flowery gardens, now gay with roses.”

Image from originals held at the Borthwick Institute for Archives.