42 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



large districts having been at different times over- 

 whelmed. 



The shores of Norfolk and Suffolk are likewise 

 subject to great changes from the constant as- 

 saults of the sea. At Hunstanton, and between 

 Weybourne and Sherringham, the cliffs are con- 

 stantly undermined by the waves. It is stated by 

 Sir Charles Lyell that in 1805, when the inn at 

 Sherringham was built, it was computed that it 

 would take seventy years for the sea to reach the 

 spot on which the building stands, the distance 

 between it and the sea being fifty yards. But in 

 1829 only a small plot of ground was left, seven- 

 teen yards having been swept away during the 

 preceding five years alone. In the harbour of this 

 same port there was in 1829 a depth of twenty- 

 four feet of water, at a place where only forty- 

 eight years before there stood a cliff fifty feet in 

 height, with houses upon it. The havoc made on 

 the coast of Norfolk has been most formidable. 

 The site of the ancient town of Cromer now forms 

 part of the German Ocean, the inhabitants having 

 gradually been compelled to retreat to their present 

 situation, from which the same process of demolition 

 still threatens to dislodge them. In the winter of 

 1825, a mass of land of some twelve acres near the 

 lighthouse was engulphed in the sea. The old 

 villages of Shipden, "Wimp well, and Eccles have 

 long ceased to exist, and several manors and 

 parishes have gradually been obliterated, and 

 their sites are now covered with water. In 1605 

 the inhabitants of the last- mentioned of these 



