OUTHORNE. HORNSEA. 123 



catalogue of ruined villages, deserted churches, and lost grave- 

 yards. 



When I first saw Outhorne, in 1828, its churchyard remained, 

 but only one tombstone had been left, which bore a not uncom- 

 mon inscription, implying the expectation of the deceased that 

 he must lie there till Christ should appear. A few years later, 

 and the burial-ground was lost in the sea. 



At Sandley Meer is another old lake, not quite destroyed by 

 the sea, on a level as low as that at Outhorne, and yielding 

 similar remains of quadrupeds. Washed out from the cliff of 

 boulder-clay immediately beyond, teeth of elephants have been 

 found. One result of the long-continued waste of the Holder- 

 ness coast is seen in the position of many villages on the edge of 

 the sea, on cliffs which are still undergoing decay. This is ob- 

 servable at many points as we proceed northward from Sandley 

 Meer, by cliffs varying in height, but nowhere exceeding 80 feet, 

 and often undulated by little hollows of old lakes as far as Horn- 

 sea. Hilston is on the highest point, 80 feet ; Ringbrough, 

 40 ; East Newton, 67 ; Bunker's Hill, 79 ; Great Cowton and 

 Mappleton, 60. All these places are on the edge of the cliff. 



Ulf bet araeran cyrice for Banum and Gunthards saula 



is the inscription on a stone 15 inches in diameter, which com- 

 memorates the building of the church (now rebuilt) at Aldbo- 

 rough, on the coast of Holderness. It may be of the date of 

 Canute. (Gough's Camden.) 



At Hornsea Gap the little drainage of an inland meer enters 

 the sea. Hornsea Meer is now undergoing some of the changes 

 which are traced in the old lakes cut into by the sea at Out- 

 horne, Sandley Meer, and other places. It is slowly filling up, 

 by depositions of vegetable matter and earthy sediment round 

 the shores and islands. The sea, once (they say) ten miles 

 distant from Hornsea, which now stands on the cliff, is advancing 

 steadily to destroy the barrier of the meer ; when that happens, 

 a section will be presented like what is seen at many of the old 



