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Show 266 ENCROACHMENTS OF TilE SEA ON If W Proceed to the English East Coast .~E z d- weno . OJ ng an · s lands havmg been de-fi d rds of numerou coast, we n reco 1 d those near Banborough and stroyed in Northumber an ' ash Ca~tle which now overhangs Holy Is1an d , an d a t Ty·nemout t d fro'm it by a stri. p of l an d. the sea, although formerly lsep~ra e arts of the coast of Durham At Hart1epool, and seve~·a ot er Pthe sea has made considerable d f ian hmestone, compose o magnes l t f Yorkshire from the mouth inroads. Alm os t the who He coasb o is in ~state' of gradual di' l a-of the Tees to that of theh ul~ff: er,ht'ch consists of lias, the oolite . . Th t rt of t e c 1 s w d p1dat10n. a pa 1 l They present abrupt an . d l lk decays s ow y. . d . . senes, an · c ·1 a ' ften t h ree h un di·ed feet in height ; an I·t IS naked preCipices, ? h th grassy covering of the slopmg only at a few pomts t at le tl' on of the erosive action of k temporary re axa . talus mar s a 'ff: lled into caves in the proJect- T l h lk ch s are was d b the sea. Je c a b ·h where they are decompose Y ing headland of Flam or~~g c;umble away. But the waste is the salt vapours, and slo y t and Spurn Point, or the 'd b t that promon ory . . fl most rapt e ween . . ll d 'fhis tract consists chie Y coast of Holderness, as It Is ;a e d. balk rubble. The irregu-of beds of clay' gravel, san '1,1 an c beds causes many springs , . f the arg1 aceous lar mtermixture o . i' 'l't t the undermining process, t d this 1ac1 1 a es . to be thrown ou ' an . h d stronO' current settmg b · mst t em an a o . the waves eatmg aga 'he w'asteful action is very conspl· chiefly from the north. . 'Il 1 1 ft' st point in Holderness, . l' t Hetg Jt t le o le . cuous at Dlm mg on ' l'ff hundred and forty-stX where the b~acon stand; on ~o~el bef:; composed of clay, with feet above high water' t le .w * pebbles scattered through It k hire we find spots, now sand- In the old maps of Yor s ' . nt sites of the towns and banks in the sea, marked as the anctde H de " Of Hyde," villages o£ . A u b urn, Hartburdn' , . an . leYft . •a nd near t he V'lI . " } the tra 1t10n IS ' · says Pennant' on y 11 d Horn sea Beck has long smce lage of Hornsea, a street ca e d 't church have also been d t " Ow thorne an 1 s 1 been swallowe . . the villa(J'e of Kilnsea ; but t tese in great part destroyed, and . 1 d The rate of enroach· places are now removed farther.m a~ ~t four yards a yea·rt. ment at Owthorne, at present, IS a o • Phillips's Geology of Yorkshire, P· 61 .. · 10 Introduct10n. t Arctic Zoology, v?l. 1 '' P· 'Mr. Phillips, of York. l For this infonnation I am mdebted to THE EAST COAST OF ENGLAND. 267 Not unreasonable fears are entertained that at some future time the Spurn Point will become an island, and that the ocean, entering into the estuary of the Humber, will cause great devastation '!'. Pennant, after speaking of the silting up of some ancient ports in that estuary, observes, ''But, in return, the sea has made most ample reprisals; the site, and even the very names of several places, once towns of note upon the Humber, are now only recorded in history; and Ravensper was at one time a rival to Hull (Madox, Ant. Exch. i., 4~~), and a port so very considerable in 133~, that Edward BaUiol and the confederated English barons sailed from hence to invade Scotland; and Henry IV., in 1399, made choice of this port to land at, to effect the deposal of Richard II., yet the whole of it has long since been devoured by the merciless ocean : extensive sands, dry at low water, are to be seen in their stead t.'' Pennant describes Spurn Head as a promontory in the form of a sickle, and says the land, for some miles to the north, was ''perpetually preyed on by the fury of the German Sea, which devours whole acres at a time, and exposes on the shores considerable quantities of beautiful amber:::.,, According to Bergmann, a strip of land, with several villages, was carried away near the mouth of the Humber in 1475. The maritime district of Lincolnshire consists chiefly of lands which lie below the level of the sea, being protected by embankments. Great parts of this fenny tract were, at some unknown period, a woody country, but were afterwards inundated, and are now again recovered from the sea. Some of the fens were embanked and drained by the Romans; but after their departure the sea returned, and large tracts were covered with beds of silt containing marine shells, now again converted into productive lands. Many dreadful catastrophes are recorded by incut·sions of the sea, whereby several parishes have been at different times overwhelmed. We come next to the cliffs of Norfolk and Suffolk, where the decay is in general incessant and rapid. At Hunstanton, on the north, fhe undermining of the lower arenaceous beds at the foot of the cliff causes masses of red and white chalk to be precipitated from above. Between H unstanton and W ey- * Phillips's Geology of Yorkshire, p. 60. t Arct. Zool., vol. i., p. 10, Introduction. * Ibid. |
