43 



quary, interprets " Classiarii Britanice," or British Marines, and 

 refers them to a period when such a Roman force was stationed 

 here. Lymne. or Studfall Castle, though a Roman fortress, is 

 believed to be a later part of the Roman period, erected, as Mr, 

 Roach-Smith surmises, to repel the invaders, the Saxons* A 

 most interesting relict was discovered built in the Roman Castle 

 of Lymne, giving evidence of its having been removed from 

 some other locality nearer the sea, and having attached to it 

 marine animals as the barnacles, proving that, at one period, it 

 had been covered with the sea. This was a Roman altar with an 

 inscription, which states that Aufidius Paulena, prefect of the 

 British fleet, erected this altar. This would seem to show that 

 some other and earlier Roman building was erected nearer the 

 sea, by which it had been probably overwhelmed, and the stones 

 removed to build this later Roman camp. And the mention of 

 these classinarii point to a British-Roman fleet that was main- 

 tained at these stations. 



If we trace the historical evidences of later times, they all 

 point to great coast changes and corresponding alterations in 

 the valleys once flooded by the sea. On the north and west of 

 Kent the sea has made inroads, sweeping away the shore and 

 cutting back the coast. These changes have been greatest 

 where the strata was of a softer nature, as that from Sheppy 

 to Reculver, where London clay is the chief component of the 

 cliffe. But historical data here only indicate the rate of waste 

 on the coast by comparison of distances certain places were 

 from the sea-shore. In Sheppy it was computed that fifty acres 

 were lost between 1810 and 183 — . IMinster Church.f now near 

 the coast, is said to have been in the middle of the island in 

 1780. Reculver Church was, in Leland's time (Henry VIII.'s 

 reign), nearly one mile from the sea. In the Isle of Thanet the 

 waste of the chalk cliflf has been very great. On a farm belong- 

 ing to Bedlam Hospital, eight acres were lost in twenty years 

 preceding 1830. It has been computed that the average waste 

 of cliff" between the North Foreland and the Reculvers (a 

 distance of about 11 miles), is not less than two feet per annum. 

 The chalk cliff's on the south of Thanet, between Ramsgate and 

 Pegwell Bay had, on an average, lost three feet per annum 

 during the ten years preceding 1830. At Pegwell Bay the loss 

 during the last thirty years has been much greater. I have a 

 sketch I made about thirty years ago, showing a large space 

 covered with grass between the present cliff" and the sea, which 

 now washes the base of the cliff"! 



An obscure tradition has come down to us, that the estates of 

 Earl Godwin, the father of Harold, who died 1053, were situate 

 where now the Goodwin Sands are found ; and there seems 

 every probability that this was an island, being formed exactly 



* Report on Lymne by C. R. Smith, 

 t See Lyall's Prin. p. 523. 



