THE INROADS OF THE SEA. 235 



remain in the parish, and hills of blown sand-dunes 

 occupy the site of the houses wherein King James's 

 petitioners resided. In 1839 the tower of Eccles 

 Church could be seen rising from amid hills of blown 

 sand. In 1862, after a celebrated November storm, 

 the sand-dunes were seen to have been blown inland ; 

 the tower was bared, and the waves " washed the 

 foundations of the edifice." 



From John o' Groat's to Land's End, there is scarcely 

 a coast-line which will not yield ample details of sea- 

 action to the inquiring mind. Landslips may and do 

 occur occasionally, and may hurl cliffs bodily seawards ; 

 the land itself may sink and give up so much of the 

 coast to the waves. But beyond these actions in 

 constancy and power is the work of the sea itself. 

 Indeed, whether grinding the pebbles and particles 

 into the long ribbed lines of sand and kissing the 

 coast with the gentle salutation of the summer wave- 

 lets, or grinding the boulders and tearing the cliffs in 

 its winter fury, the sea is ever taking from us the land 

 on which we dwell, and threatening our shores with a 

 fate all the more terrible, because, relatively, we are 

 so powerless to avert it. 



