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and he informs me the sea now attacks that portion of the marsh 

 with increased vigour, and requires much expense to keep up the 

 wall. VVe have this evidence that, at the present time, the energy 

 of the sea is here greater than had hitherto been the case. When 

 the marsh was surveyed for the Geological Memoir by Mr. Drew, 

 he mapped the falls of the ridges of the beach, and showed that 

 it had considerably altered its direction, and that the present 

 beach was cutting back a former extension of the beach near 

 Rye and redepositing it towards Dungeness ; moreover, the 

 beach at Hythe was in like manner cut off and was not deposited 

 in the same direction, Now there have been various specula- 

 tions relative to the remarkable collection of this beach ; and it 

 seems the most probable explanation that it owes its formation 

 to some peculiar set of the tide, the present beach travelling 

 like that at Dover from west to east. As there is no chalk cliff 

 whence the flints composing this beach would be derived till we 

 came to Beachy Head, it is evident that it has travelled a con- 

 siderable distance in deep water, or at least some distance off 

 the shore ; and if we follow the three-fathom line in the 

 Admiralty Chart of this part of the coast, we find that it tends 

 across the bays of Pevensey and Winchelsea, about two miles 

 from the shore, except when the coast-line is deeply indented, 

 passing close to Dungeness and thence, crossing the Romney 

 Bay, tends towards Hythe. It is recorded that the town of old 

 Winchelsea stood on a spit of sand or shingle, said to have been 

 three miles and three quarters off the new town, but its exact 

 site is unknown. It was probably near ^here the mouth of Rye 

 Harbour now is. This town was destroyed by an inundation of 

 the sea in 1236, and subsequent irruptions of the sea in 1250. 

 I before mentioned the probable effect of rivers flowing into 

 the sea, changing or modifying the current, and it probably here 

 made important alterations in the coast-line. The Rother had 

 formerly flowed out at Romney, and I believe had likewise a 

 mouth at Rye ; it now enlarged its Rye arm and abandoned its 

 way to Romney. Though this was brought about by the great 

 floods of the 12th and 13th centuries, it is most probable that a 

 change had been going on some time previovsly in the Channel, 

 through which the three-fathom line extended ; by the removal 

 of some of the more extended headlands of the coast. We have 

 seen the effect of a barrier thrown across the tidal way as in the 

 case of Dover Admiralty Pier. The sweep round of the tide 

 produced by this means, has caused the beach at the bottom of 

 Castle Hill and St. Margaret's Bay to disappear, and travel still 

 further eastward. If we look for a like cause and effect here, we 

 have at Hastings a high ridge of hard rock, known as the high 

 rock and Fairlight, round which the tide flowed, infringing on 

 Winchelsea, where probably a shingle bank extended, obstruct- 

 ing the exit of the waters of the Rother by Rye ; when this was 

 finally destroyed by the storms of 1250, the beach at Holme- 

 stone, which probably indicated the promontory of the Ness, 



