ENCROACHMENTS OF THE SEA. 39 



ledge of rocks which lay between the village of 

 Mathers and the sea was broken through in 1795, 

 the whole village swept away, and its site re- 

 mained covered by the sea, the shore of which 

 was removed nearly 200 yards inland. At Ar- 

 broath gardens and houses have been swept away 

 since the beginning of the present century ; and 

 on the southern shores of the Firth of Forth simi- 

 lar occurrences have taken place. A large tract 

 of land, which in 1688 was a common covered 

 with grass, immediately to the east of Leith, is 

 now covered with the tide at high water ; and 

 within the last few years the sandstone rocks at 

 Prestonpans, and the soil that covered them, have 

 been so much wasted away by the action of the 

 waves that several small gardens between the 

 houses and the sea-shore have all but disappeared ; 

 and within the last two or three years the author 

 perceived what appeared to be parts of stone 

 coffins protruding from the soil, and daily ex- 

 posed to the action of the waves. The place 

 where these remains appear is part of a garden 

 between the houses of the town and the sea, 

 and is only now a few yards in breadth, the 

 boundary wall and a large portion of the soil 

 having long since disappeared. It was not known 

 to have been a place of sepulture ; but, when 

 chosen for that purpose, perhaps two thousand 

 years ago, it may have been several hundred 

 yards from high-water mark. The low sandstone 

 rocks, indeed, which run out in parallel strata sea- 

 ward, must then have been covered with soil. 



D 4 



