182 THE FORESTS OF ENGLAND. 



further confirmed by the fact that on the Lancashire shore 

 there exists a deserted village anciently known as Formby. 

 ' The graveyard is still preserved, about three feet below 

 the ordinary level, and many feet under the large mounds 

 of sand which surround it. In 1783 the last householder 

 lived on the borders of the graveyard, and in his youth 

 his house was in the centre of the town. The modern 

 Formby is now a mile and a half distant, with a new 

 church and churchyard ; but the deserted lanes, where 

 one plunges in the sand at every step, still retain town 

 names of places to which they once led, as King Street, 

 Church Street, Duke Street.' * 



" The inhabitants of modern Formby had thus* had 

 ample warning to ' take up their beds and walk ;' and, in 

 all probability, old ocean was equally kind-hearted on the 

 Cheshire shore. 



"Some of the local observers and inquirers, however, 

 believe that the destruction of the forest was suddenly 

 accomplished, and that on some stormy day in autumn 

 (this season being fixed on because many of the buried 

 trees were bearing fruit when they must have been 

 destroyed), the sea made a sudden dash across the land, 

 overwhelmed the entire district, bearing down everything 

 in its way, and that the waters cleared for themselves an 

 outlet into the Mersey by a channel long known as 

 Wallasey-pool, but now occupied by one of the most 

 magnificent docks in the civilised world." 



I see no reason to conclude that both suppositions may 

 not be correct. The progress of the destruction 

 of the barrier opposed to the ingress of the sea 

 may for a time have been slow, and yet the inroad of the 

 sea at last sweeping ; but even of this being the ter- 

 mination of what may have been going on, there is no 

 evidence. 



But we have still the question, When did the catas- 



* Letter from Dr Hume. 



