CHAP, I. 



THE EMBANKMENT OF THE THAMES. 



One of the most extensive districts along the English 

 coast which lay the nearest to the country from which 

 flu* continental immigrants first landed was the tract 

 of Romney Marsh, 1 containing about 60,000 acres of 

 land, lying along the south coast of Kent. The re- 

 clamation of this tract is supposed to be due to the 

 Frisians, who were familiar with embanking, their own 

 country being in a great measure the result of laborious 

 industry in reclaiming and preserving it from the inland 

 as well as the outland waters. English history does 

 not reach so far back as the period at which Romney 

 Marsh was first reclaimed, but doubtless the work is one 

 of great antiquity. The district is about fourteen miles 

 long and eight broad, divided into Romney Marsh, 

 Wallend Marsh, Denge Marsh, and Guildford Marsh. 

 The tract is a dead uniform level, extending from Hythe, 

 in Kent, westward to Winchelsea, in Sussex ; and it is 

 to this day held from the sea by a continuous wall or 

 bank, on the solidity of which the preservation of the 



in Ireland, where the people exhibit 

 features altogether different from the 

 more modem Milesian Celts of Mini- 

 ster, whose fine physical and moral 

 characteristics remind one of the often- 

 quoted description of them by O'Con- 

 nell, as " the finest peasantry in the 

 world"; nor was the description by 

 any means exaggerated. The same 

 process of colonization to which we 

 have above referred is even now going 

 forward in the western parts of Ire- 

 land, where the old Gal way race is 

 being gradually submerged by the 

 wave of modern Irish flowing over 

 them from the northern province of 

 I'lstrr, and driving them to emigra- 

 tion in large numbers. It may further 

 be observed that the same qualities 

 which enabled the Teutonic races in 

 early times to colonize the arable lands 

 of England, continue, to render the 

 modern Englishman the best of all 

 colonists. His self-dependence fits him 

 for enduring the solitude of a wilder- 

 ness until he has reclaimed it by his 



| industry. He builds a house in the 

 | midst of his clearing, takes up his 

 | dwelling there, and his house becomes 

 his castle. This remarkable and in- 

 herent difference between the Celt and 

 the Teuton is curiously exemplified 

 by the actual state of things in 

 modem France and England. In the 

 former the agricultural population live 

 in villages, often far from the land 

 they cultivate ; in the latter they live 

 in hamlets and detached dwellings, 

 directly upon the soil on which they 

 work. The same characteristic is 

 illustrated in another way. When a 

 Frenchman makes a fortune, he settles 

 in Paris; when an Englishman does 

 so, he retires to live in the country. 



1 l\umen-ea, Sax. i. e., the large 

 watery place. Mr. Holloway is, how- 

 ever, of opinion that the word Roman- 

 ea means " the Isle of the Romans," 

 and was applied to the town of Romney, 

 originally situated upon an island re- 

 claimed by that people. Holloway 's 

 * History of Romney Marsh.' 



