CAPTAIN COOK'S HOME.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20898, 4 July 1933, Page 9

CAPTAIN COOK'S HOME.

♦ , A COTTAGE HE N^VER LIVED IN. \ \ VICTORIAN GOVETTN MENTIS PURCHASE. I Specially written for "The Pr<fcs" by D.J.C.J The surprising decision of the Victorian Government to buy and transport to Australia the cottage at Great Ayton (not "Ayrton"), Yorkshire, which is reputed to be an early home of Captain Cook, has aroused some amusement and indignation; but so far, apparently, no one has taken the trouble to point out that the great navigator, unless the historical accounts of his life arc ' s, wrong, never did live in the cottage. It is difficult to imagine, certainly, that the high official or officials appointed by the Victorian Government to make the curious purchas* at the auction last week failed to notice the following initials and date inscribed on a stone over the door of the cottage:—

J.G. 1755. ... But if they had, common sense, together with the reflection that Cook left Ayton to work in Sanderson's shop in Staithes in 1740 and went to sea in 1742, and that his father was latterly a stone-mason, should have made them hesitate. The writer often visited the Cleveland district of Yorkshire as a boy, and can remember walking across to Great Ayton from Kildale. He had read somewhere about "Captain Cook's Cottage," but was told by the mentor who greeted him on arrival that the present structure was almost certainly built after Cook had left the village, and was referred for corroboration to Besant's famous, if somewhat neglected, Life. He was also shown the inscription above the door. On reference to Besant it will be found that every support is given to the theory set out above. The Cooks went to live at Great Ayton because James Cook, the elder, had obtained the position of kind of under-bailiff's office—to the lord of the manor, Mr Scottowe. No doubt they lived in a house on the site of the present cottage. After Cook had served Mr Scottowe for some years he either relinquished his position or was dismissed from it, and adopted the trade of stone«masoh. It is the opinion of Besant that he built with his own hands the cottage that was sold the other day for £BOO. And the initials itl the inscription are obviously those of James Cook and his wife Grace. Few of Captain Cook's biographers pay much attention to the portion of his boyhood spent at Great Ayton. Sir Walter Besant, however, it not the best writer on the subject, is probably the most reliable; and it is odd to reflect that the Victorian Government either has overlooked or has mistrusted his testimony. But it does not matter so very much, perhaps. The Victorian Government will no doubt be content to possess an up* rooted hovel which, it will be pos* slble to tell Visitors, is a reputed early home of Captain Cook; arid those who know their 4 Yorkshire moors and sleepy grey villages will have' the consolation that xhe past has effectively cheated the present. The cottage is hardly worthy of the name. It is built of a mixture of small bricks and large sandstone slabs and has in its favour d-quaint roof of curved red tiles; but Its ap* pearance is mean and drab. Its chief virtue is that it partakes of the quality of the neighbourly landscape, artd, like the Yorkshire character, gives arf impression of great solidity. It had been better left to stand on its slight eminence, where it has so long seemed imper* turbable.