230 GLIMPSES OF NATURE. 



together (they built stoutly in those days), and over- 

 hung the waves, which had undermined their founda- 

 tions. These walls were nearer the sea by eighty 

 yards than the church, and in 1780 they were recorded 

 as having recently fallen into the sea. 



Then comes 1804, when part of the churchyard, 

 with several houses, went by the board. The church 

 itself then entered on its final stage of ruin. It was 

 dismantled and abandoned, and its sister spires were 

 left to form the familiar landmarks of the coast. A 

 drawing taken in 1834 shows us the church very 

 much in its present state. It overhangs the cliff, and 

 to-day " its artificial causeway of stones " alone pre- 

 serves it from sharing the fate of its once extensive 

 surroundings. 



You leave Reculvers impressed anew and forcibly 

 with the power of the ocean on the land, and you 

 learn a lesson of geological value, in that you can 

 realise what science means, when it affirms that, among 

 the agencies which are ever sculpturing and carving 

 the earth, few or none excel in power the waves of 

 the sea. 



