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Show 278 ENCROACHMENTS OF TilE SBA ON of a tract of land near the sea, so that houses became visible at points near the shore, from w hen~e they. could ?ot be se~n previously. In the. desc~ip~ion. of ,~h1s subsidence m t~e Philosophical TransactiOns, It Is sat?, that the land consisted of a solid stony mass (chalk), restm.g on wet cl~y ~galt}, so that it slid forwards towards the sea, JUSt as a shtp Is launched on tallowed planks." It is also stated that, within the memory of persons then living, the cliff there had been washed away to the extent of ten rods *. Encroachments of the sea at Hythe are also on record· but between this point and Rye there has been a O'ain of land: within the times of history ; the rich level tract caiied Romney Marsh about ten miles in width and five in breadth consisting of s'i lt, having received great accessi.o n. I t has be:n necessary, however, to protect it, .f~om the earliest periods, by a wall from the sea. Thes~ add1t1ons of land are exactly opposite that part of the Enghsh Channel where the conflicting tides meet ; for as those from the north are the most powerful, they do not neutralize each other's force till the~ arrive at this distance from the straits. Rye, on the south ofthts tract, was once destroyed by the sea, but it is now two miles distant from it. The neighbouring town of Winchelsea was destroyed in the reign of Ed ward I., the mouth of the Rothe~ stopped up, and the river diverted into another channel. In tts old bed an ancient vessel, apparently a Dutch merchantman, was recently found. It was built entirely of oak, and much blackened t• South Coast of England.-To pass over some po~ts near Hastings, where the cliff's have wasted at several penods, we arrive at the promontory of Beachy Head. Here a m~ss of chalk, three hundred feet in length, and from seventy to e1ghty in breadth, fell, in the year 1813, with a tremendous crash i and similar slips have since been frequent t · h About a mile to the west of the town of Newhaven t e remains of an ancient entrenchment are seen, on the bro~ of Castle Hill. This earth-work was evidently once of consi*~able extent but the greater part has been cut away. e cliffs, which are undermined here, are hi~h; more than o~e hundred feet of chalk being covered by tertiary clay and san ; • Phil. 'frans., 1716. t Edin. Journ. of Sci., No.xix., P· 5 6 · t Webster, Geol. Trans., vol. iii., p.192. TilE SOU'rll COAS1' OF ENGLAND. 279 from sixty to seventy feet in thickness. In a few centuries the last vestiges of the plastic c1ay formation on the southern borders of the chalk of the South Downs on this coast will be annihilated, and future geologists will learn, from historical documents, the ancient geographical boundaries of groups of strata then no more. On the opposite side of the estuary of the Ouse, on the east of Ncwhaven harbour, a bed of shingle, composed of chalk flints, derived from the waste of the adjoining ciifl's, had accumulated at Seaford for several centuries. In the great storm of November, 18~4, this bank was entirely swept away, and the town of ~caford inundated. Another great beach of shingle is now forming from fresh materials. The whole coast of Sussex has been incessantly encroached upon by the sea from time immemorial; and, althouO'h sudden inundations only, which overwhelmed fertile or inhabited tracts are noticed in hist~ry, the .records attest an extraordinary amount of lo.ss. Durmg a perwd of no more than eighty years, there are notlces of about twenty inroads in which tracts of land of from twenty to four hundred acres in extent were overwhelmed ~t once; the. value of the tithes being mentioned by Nicholas, m his Taxatto Ecclesiastica *. In the reign of Elizabeth the town of Brighton was situated on that tract where the chainpier now extends into the sea. In the year 1665, twenty-two tenetnen~s had b.een destroyed under the cliff. At that period there still remamed under the cliff one hundred and thirteen tenements, the whole of which were overwhelmed in 1703 and 1705.. N~ traces of the ancient town are now perceptible, yet the~~ IS evidence that the sea has merely resumed its ancient position at the base of the cliffs, the site of the old town having been· merely a beach abandoned by the ocean for ages. It would be endless to allude to all the localities on the Sussex and Hamp~hire coasts, where the l~nd has been destroyed; but w_e may pomt to the relation of the present shape and geolo? 1cal structure of the Isle of Wight, as attesting that it owes Its pre~ent outline to the continued action of the sea. 'l'hrough the . middle of the island a high ridge of chalk strata, in a vertical position, runs in a direction east and west. This chalk forms the projecting promontory of Culver Cliff on the east, * Mantell, Geology of Suasu, p. 293. |