these coasts that destruction is going on, not along their whole extent. At some places, as will hereafter be mentioned, deposition and accretion are taking place.

Waste of East and South Coasts of England.In Yorkshire the waste is most rapid along the coast of Holderness, between Flamborough Head and Spurn Point at the entrance of the Humber; this tract consists of beds of clay, gravel, and sand, which form low cliffs against which the waves beat, while a strong current sets from the north and carries away the débris.

Fig. 29. The Needles, from Headon Hill, looking southward.

"For many years," says Professor Phillips, "the rate at which the cliffs recede from Bridlington to Spurn, a distance of 36 miles, has been found by measurement to equal on an average 24 yards annually, which upon 36 miles of coast would amount to about 30 acres a year. At this rate the coast, the mean height of which above the sea is about 40 feet, has lost one mile in breadth since the Norman Conquest, and more than two miles since the occupation of York by the Romans." In some places

the loss of land is said to be as much as 5 yards per annum.1

The sites of the villages of Auburn, Hartburn, Hyde, and Ravenspur, are now sand-banks dry only at low water, though Ravenspur, where Bolingbroke landed to depose Richard II., was once so large and flourishing a sea-port as to be a rival of Hull.

Norfolk.-At Sherringham, between Weybourn and Cromer, there was in 1829 a depth of 28 feet of water in the harbour (enough to float a frigate) at the very spot where forty-eight years before there stood a cliff 50 feet high, with houses upon it. The site of the old town of Cromer is now in the German Ocean, the inhabitants having continually built inland as the sea gained on them. It is stated by Mr. Redman' that during the twenty-three years which elapsed between the Ordnance Survey of 1838 and the year 1861, a portion of the cliff composed of sand and clay between Cromer and Mundesley receded 330 feet, amounting to a mean annual waste of 14 feet; these cliffs are from 250 to 300 feet high, and the amount of material carried away from them every year must, therefore, be

enormous.

On the same coast churches, villages, and manors, such as those of Shipden, Wimpwell and Eccles, have one after another disappeared, so that their previous existence is only known from old records.

Suffolk has suffered in a similar manner. Dunwich, now only an inconsiderable village, was once the chief port in the county. It is stated in Doomsday Book that two tracts of land outside the village had been taxed by Edward the Confessor, but had been destroyed in the few years which had elapsed between that time and the Conqueror's Survey. In other later records mention is made of, at one time, a monastery, at another several churches, then the old. port, then 400 houses at once, and gradually the gaol, the town-hall, the high roads, then of ancient cemeteries, the coffins of which were for some time

1 See a paper "On the Encroachments of the Sea from Spurn Point to Flamborough Head," by R. Pickwell," Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng.," vol. li. p. 191.

2" Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng.," vol. xxiii. p. 31.

exposed in the cliff-all swept away by the devouring sea. It is even said by Ray that old writings make mention of a wood a mile and a half to the east of the town, the site of the wood being, of course, now farther than that in the German Ocean.1

Beacon Cliff, near Harwich, has wasted at a very rapid rate; it is about 50 feet high, and consists entirely of clay. Captain Washington ascertained that between the years. 1709 and 1756 it had receded a distance of 40 feet; between 1756 and 1804, 80 feet had been swept away, and between 1804 and 1841, no less than 350 feet, showing a rapidly accelerated rate of destruction.

Kent. The Isle of Sheppey, off the north coast, furnishes another example of the rapid destruction of clay cliffs, which are continually foundering down under the combined attacks of rain-water and sea-waves. An account of the landslips constantly taking place along the north coast of this island has already been given (p. 92), and the sea is chiefly employed in washing away the ruins which fall on the shore. As much as 50 acres of land have been lost in 20 years, and if the present rate of destruction should continue, it is easy to foresee the total destruction of the island.

Still farther east stands the church of Reculver, upon a low cliff of clay and sand; Reculver was a Roman station, and even in Henry VIII.'s time the church was nearly a mile from the sea. The Roman camp was destroyed in 1780 and part of the churchyard in 1804, but, since then, artificial means have been taken to break the force of the waves and to preserve the church as a landmark.2

The Goodwin Sands are probably a remnant of Kentish land destroyed by the sea. Borings made in 1817 showed that there was only 15 feet of sand resting on blue clay, below which the chalk was reached. Tradition connects the name with Earl Goodwin (the father of Harold), who died in the year 1053, and whose estates are supposed to have been situated here.

Sussex.-Westward of Hastings there has been much loss of land, and though Pevensey Level, with its border of shingle, has been formed in historical times, yet for more 1 Lyell's "Principles," tenth edition, vol. i. p. 520. 2 See Lyell's "Principles," vol. i. p. 523.

than a century the whole shore-line has been giving way, the rate of waste now being between 3 and 7 feet per annum. At Langney Point between the years 1736 (Desmarest's Survey) and 1844 (Ordnance Survey) the sea had advanced more than half a mile. A comparison between the two Surveys above mentioned shows that the coast between Eastbourne and Beachy Head has receded to the extent of more than a quarter of a mile, and in some places as much as 600 yards, the average loss being between 12 and 15 feet per annum (see map, fig. 30). Of the Martello towers constructed here in 1806, four (Nos. 69 to 72) have since been destroyed by the encroachments of the sea, and are now below highwater mark.

1

At Beachy Head, which is a promontory of hard chalk, the erosion is less rapid, but falls from the cliff are frequent, and the largest landslip of which record remains took place in 1813, when a mass of chalk 300 feet long and about 80 feet wide was precipitated on to the shore. Seven towers of chalk called the Seven Charles formerly stood out from these cliffs, but the last of them, which was known to have withstood the attacks of the sea for more than a century, fell in 1853.3

On the highest point between Seaford and Cuckmere there are the remains of an ancient British earthwork, the area of which is said to have been 12 acres. The southern portion of this earthwork has been carried away by the recession of the cliffs, and only 4 or 5 acres now remain within the lines. We may conclude, therefore, that at least 7 acres have been washed away since the time of the Britons.

Between Newhaven and Brighton the average rate of waste is 3 feet per annum, and Mr. H. Willett states that at Aldrington (3 miles west of Brighton) the encroachment of the sea amounted to 270 feet in ten years, or an annual rate of 9 yards, these figures being obtained by actual admeasurement.

1 Redman," Proc. Inst. Civil Engineers," vol. xxiii. For the use of this illustration (fig. 30) I am indebted to Rev. H. E. Maddock and Mr. Chambers, of Eastbourne.

2 Webster, "Trans. Geol. Soc." vol. ii. p. 191.

3 Chambers' "Guide to Eastbourne."