Fig. 18. a, a. Map of Lowestoff Ness, Suffolk.* The dotted lines express a series of ridges of sand and shingle, forming the extremity of the triangular space called the Ness. b, b, b. The dark line represents the inland cliff on which the town of Lowestoff stands, between which and the sea is the Ness. limited areas, and several of these ridges have been formed within the observation of persons now living. A rampart of heavy materials is first thrown up to an unusual altitude by some extraordinary tide, attended with a violent gale. Subsequent tides extend the base of this high bank of shingle, and the interstices are then filled with sand blown from the beach. The Arundo and other marine plants by degrees obtain a footing; and creeping along the ridge, give solidity to the mass, and form in some cases a matted covering of turf. Meanwhile another mound is forming externally, which by the like process rises and gives protection to the first. If the sea forces its way through one of the external and incomplete mounds, the breach is soon repaired. After a while the marine plants within the areas inclosed by these embankments are succeeded by a better species of herbage, affording good pasturage, and the sands become sufficiently firm to support buildings.t Destruction of Dunwich by the Sea.-The sea undermines the high cliffs near Corton, a few miles north of Lowestoff, as also two miles south of the same town, at Pakefield, a village which has been in part swept away during the present century. From thence to Dunwich the destruction is constant. At the distance of 250 yards from the wasting cliff at Pakefield, where we must suppose land to have existed at no remote period, the sea is sixteen feet deep at low water, and in the roadstead beyond, twenty-four feet. Of the gradual destruction of Dunwich, once the most considerable seaport on this coast, we have many authentic records. Gardner in his history of that borough, published in 1754, shows, by reference to documents beginning with Doomsday Book, that the cliffs at Dunwich, Southwold, Eastern, and Pakefield, have been always subject to wear away. At Dunwich, in particular, two tracts of land which had been taxed in the eleventh century, in the time of King Edward the Con From Mr. R. C. Taylor's Mem., see below. + The formation of the Ness is well described by Mr. R. C. Taylor, Phil. Mag., p. 297. Oct. 1827. fessor, are mentioned, in the Conqueror's survey, made but a few years afterwards, as having been devoured by the sea. The losses, at a subsequent period, of a monastery,—at another of several churches,-afterwards of the old port,-then of 400 houses at once,-of the church of St. Leonard, the high road, town-hall, gaol, and many other buildings, are mentioned, with the dates when they perished. It is stated that, in the sixteenth century, not one quarter of the town was left standing; yet the inhabitants retreating inland, the name was preserved, as has been the case with many other ports, when their ancient site has been blotted There is, however, a church, of considerable antiquity, still standing, the last of twelve mentioned in some records. In 1740, the laying open of the churchyard of St. Nicholas and St. Francis, in the sea-cliffs, is well described by Gardner, with the coffins and skeletons exposed to view-some lying on the beach, and rocked— out. "In cradle of the rude imperious surge." Ray also says, "that Of these cemeteries no remains can now be seen. ancient writings make mention of a wood a mile and a half to the east of Dunwich, the site of which must at present be so far within the sea."* This city, once so flourishing and populous, is now a small village, with about twenty houses, and one hundred inhabitants. There is an old tradition, "that the tailors sat in their shops at Dunwich, and saw the ships in Yarmouth Bay;" but when we consider how far the coast at Lowestoff Ness projects between these places, we cannot give credit to the tale, which, nevertheless, proves how much the inroads of the sea in times of old had prompted men of lively imagination to indulge their taste for the marvellous. Gardner's description of the cemeteries laid open by the waves remind us of the scene which has been so well depicted by Bewick,t and of which numerous points on the same coast might have suggested the idea. On the verge of a cliff, which the sea has undermined, are represented the unshaken tower and western end of an abbey. The eastern aisle is gone, and the pillars of the cloister are soon to follow. The waves have almost isolated the promontory, and invaded the cemetery, where they have made sport with the mortal relics, and thrown up a skull upon the beach. In the foreground is seen a broken tombstone, erected, as its legend tells, "to perpetuate the memory of one whose name is obliterated, as is that of the county for which he was Custos Rotulorum.'" A cormorant is perched on the monument, defiling it, as if to remind some moraliser, like Hamlet, of "the base uses" to which things sacred may be turned. Had this excellent artist desired to satirise certain popular * Consequences of the Deluge, Phys. Theol. Discourses. + History of British Birds, vol. ii. p. 220. Ed. 1821. VOL. I.-2 H theories of geology, he might have inscribed the stone to the memory of some philosopher who taught "the permanency of existing continents""the era of repose"-" the impotence of modern causes." South of Dunwich are two cliffs, called Great and Little Cat Cliff. That which bears the name of Great has become the smaller of the two, and is only fifteen feet high, the more elevated portion of the hill having been carried away; on the other hand, the Lesser Cat Cliff has gained in importance, for the sea has here been cutting deeper into a hill which slopes towards it. But at no distant period, the ancient names will again become appropriate, for at Great Cliff the base of another hill will soon be reached, and at Little Cat Cliff the sea will, at about the same time, arrive at a valley. The incursions of the sea at Aldborough were formerly very destructive, and this borough is known to have been once situated a quarter of a mile east of the present shore. The inhabitants continued to build farther inland, till they arrived at the extremity of their property, and then the town decayed greatly; but two sand-banks, thrown up at a short distance, now afford a temporary safeguard to the coast. Between these banks and the present shore, where the current now flows, the sea is twenty-four feet deep on the spot where the town formerly stood. Continuing our survey of the Suffolk coast to the southward, we find that the cliffs of Bawdsey and Felixtow are foundering slowly, and that the point on which Landguard Fort is built suffers gradual decay. It appears that, within the memory of persons now living, the Orwell river continued its course in a more direct line to the sea, and entered to the north instead of the south of the low bank on which the fort last mentioned is built. Essex. Harwich, in Essex, stands on an isthmus, which will probably become an island in little more than half a century; for the sea will then have made a breach near Lower Dover Court, should it continue to advance as rapidly as it has done during the last fifty years. Within ten years, there was a considerable space between the battery at Harwich, built twenty-three years ago, and the sea; part of the fortification has already been swept away, and the rest overhangs the water. Since the year 1807, a field called the Vicar's Field, which belonged to the living of Harwich, has been totally annihilated.* At Walton Naze, in the same county, the cliffs, composed of London clay, capped by the shelly sands of the crag, reach the height of about 100 feet, and are annually undermined by the waves. The old churchyard of Walton has been washed away, and the cliffs to the south are constantly disappearing. Kent.-Isle of Sheppey.-On the coast bounding the estuary of the *On authority of Dr. Mitchell, F. G. S. Thames, there are numerous examples both of the gain and loss of land. The Isle of Sheppey, which is now about six miles long by four in breadth, is composed of London clay. The cliffs on the north, which are from sixty to eighty feet high, decay rapidly, fifty acres having been lost within the last twenty years. The church at Minster, now near the coast, is said to have been in the middle of the island fifty years ago ;* and it has been conjectured that, at the present rate of destruction, the whole isle will be annihilated in about half a century. On the coast of the mainland to the east of Sheppey is Herne Bay; a place still retaining the name of a bay, although it is no longer appropriate, as the waves and currents have swept away the ancient headlands. There was formerly a small promontory in the line of the shoals where the present pier is built, by which the larger bay was divided into two, called the Upper and Lower.t Still farther east stands the church of Reculver, upon a cliff composed of clay and sand, about twenty feet high. Reculver (Regulvium), was an important military station in the time of the Romans, and appears, from Leland's account, to have been, so late as Henry VIII.'s reign, nearly one mile distant from the sea. 2. Ancient chapel now destroyed. The cottage between this chapel and the cliff was demolished by the sea, in 1782. In the "Gentleman's Magazine," there is a view of it, taken in 1781, which still represents a considerable space as intervening between the north wall of the churchyard and the cliff. Some time before the year 1780, the waves had reached the site of the ancient Roman camp, or for * For this information I am indebted to W. Gunnel, Esq. Vol. ii. New Series, 1809, p. 801. tification, the walls of which had continued for several years after they were undermined to overhang the sea, being firmly cemented into one mass. They were eighty yards nearer the sea than the church, and they are spoken of in the "Topographica Britannica" in the year 1780, as having recently fallen down. In 1804, part of the churchyard with some Fig. 20. adjoining houses was washed away, and the ancient church, with its two lofty spires, a well known land-mark, was dismantled and abandoned as a place of worship. It is still standing (1834,) but would probably have been annihilated ere this, had not the force of the waves been checked by an artificial causeway of stones and large wooden piles driven into the sands to break the force of the waves.' Isle of Thanet.-The isle of Thanet was, in the time of the Romans, separated from the rest of Kent by a navigable channel through which the Roman fleets sailed on their way to and from London. Bede describes this small estuary as being, in the beginning of the eighth century, three furlongs in breadth; and it is supposed that it began to grow shallow about the period of the Norman conquest. It was so far silted up in the year 1485, that an act was then obtained to build a bridge across it; and it has since become marsh land, with small streams running through it. On the coast, Bedlam Farm, belonging to the hospital of that name, has lost eight acres in the last twenty years, the land being composed of * Dr. Mitchell, Proceedings of Geol. Soc. vol. ii. No. 1. |