40 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



In some parts of the ancient village to which we 

 now refer, the washing away of many of the 

 houses is a mere question of time, unless some 

 effectual artificial barrier is opposed to the en- 

 croachments of the sea. 



On every part of the coast of England similar 

 alterations have been taking place. A variety of 

 instances of very striking changes in the sea-shores 

 of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and Norfolk are re- 

 corded by geologists. In old maps of the first- 

 mentioned county, spots are mentioned as the 

 sites of towns and villages which are now sand- 

 banks in the sea. The town and harbour of 

 Eavenspur, from which Edward Baliol sailed to 

 invade Scotland in 1332, and where Henry IV. 

 landed in 1399, no longer exists; and in their 

 place are extensive sands, dry only at low water. 

 The ancient towns and villages of Hyde, Auburn, 

 and Hartburn have long since disappeared, and 

 the places where they stood are now covered by 

 the waters. Fears by no means unreasonable are 

 entertained that Spurn Point will at some future 

 time be separated from the mainland and become 

 an island, a change which will, if it occur, be 

 productive of great devastation from the estuary 

 of the Humber being thus exposed to the ravages 

 of the ocean. 



Great changes in process of time have occurred 

 in other portions of the English coast. In the 

 Isle of Sheppey, the church at Minster, now near 

 the shore, was seventy years ago in the middle of 

 the island ; and one of the most eminent geologists 



