29S 



THE MUSEUM. 



formed by the accumulation of mud 

 •deposited by the waters of the Hum- 

 ber, just opposite to Brough, on 

 the Yorkshire coast, which was about 

 500 yards long and contained about 

 100 acres. At low water cattle were 

 driven upon it from the neighboring 

 shore, and it afforded good herbage. 

 In 1846 a commissioner upon w^oods 

 and forests was directed to inspect it 

 with a view to reclaiming it. It was 

 found, however, from some change in 

 the current that it was gradually dis- 

 appearing again, and in four months 

 the whole island had gone, leaving on 

 its site a deep channel. As this island 

 disappeared it was found that an im- 

 mense bank was forming on the other 

 side of the channel; and this bank had 

 scarcely risen above the water than it 

 again began to disappear, and in 1863 

 the other island reappeared on its old 

 site. Another island on the Lincon- 

 shire side of the Humber is now in ex- 

 istence, which has arisen from the 

 same cause, and consists of about 300 

 acres, and is much used for grazing. 

 An island called Lunk Island, a few 

 miles from Hull, Professor Phillips 

 tells us, has been formed from the 

 loose salt taken so extensively by the 

 sea from the Holderness coast. It is 

 now a parish and is extensively inhab- 

 ited and has an area of 7,000 acres. 

 It was first formed as a sandbank, and 

 soon became a small island. It became 

 joined to the mainland by the accumu- 

 lation of river deposits. In the time 

 of Charles the First the island con- 

 tained only seven acres, and then was 

 a mile and a half from the Yorkshire 

 coast. At the present time there are 

 other accumulations forming amount- 

 ing to 3,000 acres, making a grand to- 

 tal of 10,000 acres, and Mr. James 



Oldham, C. E. the commissioner, re- 

 ports that the deposit is going on so 

 rapidly, that the portion of the exten- 

 sion lying on that part of the Humber 

 will be reclaimed and rendered avail- 

 able for agricultural purposes. 



If we take a walk along the muddy 

 banks of the Humber from Trent Falls 

 to its mouth, only a very few miles, 

 how many of those little towns and 

 villages mentioned by our old histor- 

 ians and chroniclers have been swept 

 out of existence by that great intruder 

 upon the coast — the sea. Ravens- 

 purne, Ravensrod, Upsall, Redmore, 

 Tharles Thorpe, Potterfleet, Hyde, 

 Auburn Winkton etc., etc. All those 

 were once known as ports, towns and 

 villages, but are now covered by the 

 relentless waters under which they at 

 present rest. 



Ravenspurne, the most noted, and 

 mentioned b}- our great dramatist and 

 poet, Shakespeare, has a most remark- 

 able history. Mr. Thompson, in a 

 work called Historic Facts, tells us 

 "that the short space of 150 years 

 witnessed its origin, its celebrity as a 

 seaport, its final destruction by the en- 

 croachments of the sea." It was origi- 

 nally a small island formed by an ac- 

 cidental accumulation of sand and 

 stones in the reign of Henry the Third. 

 At first it was only used by fishermen 

 to dry their nets upon. In the reign 

 of Edward the First it assumed the 

 appearance of a commercial pOrt, and 

 obtained a charter to hold fairs and 

 markets, that was in 1299. In the 

 year 1355, the Abbot of Meaux was 

 ordered to gather up the bodies of the 

 dead in the churchyard, which by rea- 

 son of repeated indundations were 

 then washed up and uncovered, and to 

 bury them in the churchyard at Easing- 



