68 



the period of the Revolution ; and it was the place from 

 which William Perm sailed with his friends when going to 

 colonize or " plant" the State to which he gave his 

 name. Since that time, strange causes have been in 

 operation, sufficient to account for more than all the 

 changes which these antiquities suggest to the mind. 



The following is an extract from Captain Denham'9 

 " Mersey and Dee" : — 



" Hoylake was once the roadstead of Britain's fleet, and 

 " here William III. embarked with his army, for Ireland, in 

 " 1690. It was then called Hyle, or High-lake, being 

 " behind or in-shore of Hyle-saxid ; and where, in those 

 " days, the ' great ships put out part of their lading, to 

 " lighten them for sailing over the flats into Liverpool. 

 " Indeed, within the present century, the "Princessa" frigate 



" found mooring-room there.' — p. 25. 



****** 



" We lookback only 150 years, and perceive Hyle-lakc 

 " half-a-mile wide, with 1 5 feet water at its western, and 

 " 30 feet at its eastern, entrance ; sheltered from N.E. to 

 " N.W. by one extensive sand-bank, only covered at high 

 " water springs, and known as Hyle-sand. At the present 

 " day we behold it as a mere dyke, of 70 fathoms wide, 

 " having but 18 feet water retained at low water, in a small 

 " pool \ of a mile long at its centre, with but 2 feet at its 

 " western entrance instead of 15, and actually dry across its 

 " eastern, where there were 30 feet at low water ! !" — p. 96. 



The extensive and rapid changes which this part of the 

 neighbouring coast is undergoing will be seen from another 

 extract: — 



" The eastern branch of the Dee then navigable (150 

 " years ago) in 15 feet at low water, right up to Parkgate, 

 " was so resisted in its reflux by Hyle sand that it found 

 " escape through the lake, even at the rounding interrup- 

 " tion which Helbre island presented ; but when Lime wharf 

 " extended itself out to the Seldom- seen rocks, the deflected 

 " impetus struck incessantly upon Hyle-bank ; and we have 

 " now a division of the bank of 4 miles long by \ of a mile 

 " wide, carrying a column of water as deep as 60 feet, at 

 " low water, where the bank did not cover at high water 

 " neaps ; so that, in fact, the tidal scour has been 80 feet 

 " deep, and a positive removal of 147,739,975 cubic yards 

 •' of sand by tidal action alone." — p. 96. 



From this removal of sand — at the rate of nearly 

 1,000,000 cubic yards per annum, or 1400 in the course of 



