The land of James Cook's youth is England's North Riding of Yorkshire, often referred to as 'Broad Acres' or 'God's Country'. Stretching from the flat marshland of the Tees estuary, the shoreline rises at Saltburn-by-the-Sea to towering cliffs which stand guard along the coast, broken only by the fishing villages of Skinningrove, Staithes and Runswick Bay before reaching Whitby  where the River Esk carves its way to the North Sea. With the exception of Robin Hood's Bay, the cliffline remains almost unbroken south toScarborough.