44 



like the adjacent coast at Richborough, as was determined by 

 borings undertaken by the Trinity Board in 1817 ; and it has 

 been supf)osed they were overwhehned by the flood mentioned 

 by the Saxon chronicle as occurring in 1099. In connection with 

 this presumed Goodwin Island, I may be permitted to refer to a 

 most interesting memoir, written by Mr. Gosslet, in the " Revue 

 Scientifique," and published in 1878 (which was presented to 

 me by the author), in which he describes the changes that have 

 taken place on the opposite coast since the Roman period in 

 the plains extending from St. Omer to Dunkirk and Calais, and 

 which the French Savans had concluded had been recovered 

 from the sea since the Roman period. Recent excavations 

 within this area have proved that the Romans occupied the 

 entire area, which contains numerous coins, works of art, and 

 pottery of great extent, which had been covered by an eruption 

 of the sea which had remained over the land for some centu- 

 ries, leaving a considerable deposit of sea-sand and marine 

 shells which had lived in the area, having both valves and the 

 syphons upward. The sea has since left the area, and it has 

 been covered with vegetation and a Flemish town erected on 

 it. M. Gosslet summarises his researches, as proving, firstly, 

 that, at the time of the Roman invasion, Flanders was not 

 covered by the sea. Secondly, the marine invasion is not 

 anterior to the end of the third century of the Christian era. 

 Thirdly, the sea had retired from a great part about tlie ninth 

 century. Fourthly, the sea never advanced as far as St. Omer. 



On the north-west of East Kent, in the marshes of the 

 ]\Iedway, near Sittingbourne, are found the remains of very 

 extensive Roman potteries, which contain numerous specimens 

 of a peculiar Roman pottery, known as Upchurch ware, as they 

 have been found in the most abundance in the Upchurch 

 marshes, now covered by the tide. These extensive potteries 

 were, at the Roman period, dry land ; they are now buried some 

 five feet beloAv high water-mark by the sea.''-' 



In my mention of Romney Marsh, I alluded to the sea having 

 flowed up so far as Appledore, and that the Roman Castrum 

 contained an altar built into the walls of Lymne, which had 

 been removed from some other place, presumably the Portus 

 Lemanis. Between this station and Romney a tract of land 

 exists, now protected from the sea bv the Dymchurch wall, and 

 in and within this area Mr. Elliot has found remains of potteries 

 similar to those in the Upchurch marshes.f I saw a Roman 

 vessel in Romney, found in the St. Mary's marshes, and the 

 evidences point to these having been dry land to a considerable 

 extent during the Roman period. In a report on the excava- 

 tions on the site of the Roman Castrum of Lymne, by Mr. Jas. 



* Wanderings of an Antiquary, J. Wright, p. 163. 



+ See Report of Excavations at Lymne and Romney Marsh (C. Roach Smith 

 and Mr. J. Elliot. 



