CHAPTER XI 



SHINGLE VEGETATION OF THE SUFFOLK SHORE 



THE most remarkable feature of the Suffolk coast 

 which stretches for some fifty miles from Land- 

 guard Point at the mouth of the Orwell to the denes 

 of Lowestoft is the vast accumulation of shingle 

 which in places guards the shore. Not only is there 

 the famous " shelf " running between Aldeburgh and 

 the North Vere, which for twelve miles or more separ- 

 ates the river from the sea, and which, except for a 

 coastguard station and the Orford lighthouse, is desti- 

 tute of any habitation, but at Baudsey Ferry, at Shingle 

 Street, where the black-boarded, red-tiled fishermen's 

 cottages are entirely surrounded by shingle, at Walbers- 

 wick, at Easton and Benacre, considerable stretches of 

 shingle may be seen. Here and there, it is true, the 

 shingle gives way to sand-dunes ; and at Felixstowe, 

 Dunwich, Southwold and again between Kessingland 

 and Lowestoft some low-lying sandy cliffs the haunt 

 of myriads of sand-martins in summer-time are met 

 with ; yet on the whole the shingle may fairly be re- 

 garded as the characteristic feature of the Suffolk shore. 

 It would seem to be almost impossible that any vege- 

 tation could manage to exist on the bare surface of the 

 shingle beach ; and yet the shingle, like the sand-dunes 

 and the meal-marshes, has a distinct flora of its own. 

 It is not a rich flora, if richness be reckoned according 



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