Notes on the Geology of South Ferriby. 69 
There are two matters however which may well come within 
the scope of these notes. I refer to the erosion of the coast and the 
formation of new land. With regard to the former, as in the case 
of the sea on the Holderness coast, so the Humber on the north 
Lincolnshire shore has washed the land away in recent times to a 
very serious extent. Without going further back than the brief 
period of my own existence, I can remember a field with a 
splendid avenue of tall elm and ash trees just to the north-east of 
the Hall. This has entirely gone. The trees were cut down one 
by one to ‘save their lives,’ and an odd“ stool” or two lying on 
the beach alone remind us of the land that isnomore. <A hundred 
yards or less further on is a Roman well, surrounded by dressed 
stones, which twenty years ago was quite Close to the cliffs. At 
_ present it is many yards away. Another well, now at low-water 
mark and covered with mud, and at a considerable distance from 
_ the cliffs, was high up on the beach within the memory of many 
inhabitants of Ferriby. Formerly a house stood on the cliffs 
towards the north east end. I can well remember a long garden 
in front of it, surrounded by pailings, outside which was a path 
along the cliff edge. The path went, then the pailings, slice after 
slice of the garden, and finally the house itself. In Mr. Stather’s 
section drawn in 1896 this house is shewn, being then at the cliff 
edge. It has now disappeared and part of its site is washed 
“away. 
The coast in front of the Hall, and towards Ferriby Sluice 
‘Is now protected by an apron of slag, etc., but this constantly 
tr requires repair. In the exceptionally nigh tides of a few years ago, 
as well as during the past summer (1905), the road leading from 
the Sluice to Wintringham was over-run by the tides, the bank 
having given way, and was for some time impassable. A new 
4 
rectangular embankment has been made on the inside of the road. 
Mr. Alderman Tombleson of Barton informs me that in 1844 
he was taken round the grounds of Ferriby Hall and “‘ there was a 
long garden path reaching far down into what is now the river. 
There was also a long row of great trees, where the rooks built, 
“going towards the north east, and was called the long walk. 
In the days of the Racing Baronet, whose portrait is now 
at Scawby Hall, there was land enough between the Hall 
