244 THE ISLE OF RUIM. 



ness, that up to date we have heard practically nothing 

 of Eamsgate, Margate, and Broadstairs, which now form 

 the real centres of population in the nominal island. Its 

 relations have all been with Eutupioe, Sandwich, Canter- 

 bury, and the mainland. But the silting up of the 

 Wantsum turned the new Thanet seaward, by the chalky 

 cliffs ; and the gaps or gates in that natural sea-wall now 

 began to be of comparative importance as fishing stations 

 and small havens. Ebb's Fleet was no longer the port of 

 Euim. The centre of gravity of the island shifts at this 

 point, accordingly, from Minster to Eamsgate. The 

 change is well marked by certain interesting ecclesiastical 

 facts. Neither Eamsgate nor Broadstairs had originally 

 churches of their own. The first formed part of the 

 parish of St. Lawrence, which was itself a mere chapelry 

 of Minster till late in the thirteenth century. The old 

 village lies half a mile inland, and Eamsgate itself was 

 throughout the middle ages nothing more than a mere 

 gap and cove where the fishermen of St. Lawrence kept 

 their boats. The first church in the town proper was 

 not erected till 1791. Similarly, Broadstairs formed 

 part of the parish of St. Peter's, the village of which lies 

 back at about the same distance from the sea as St. 

 Lawrence ; and St Peter's, too, was at first a chapelry of 

 Minster. The cliffs were then nothing; the inward 

 slope was everything. 



Margate seems to have been the first place in the new 

 Thanet to attain the honour of a place in history. As in 

 two previous cases, the Mere Gate was at first but a 

 fisherman's station for the village of St. John's, which 

 gathered about the old church at the south end of the 



