10 ROMNEY MARSH AND PART I. 



in the reign of Edward I. so blocked up the Rother 

 witli shingle, at the same time breaching tlie wall, that 

 the river took a new course, and flowed thenceforward 

 by Rye into the sea ; and the port of New Romney 

 became lost. The point of Dungeness, running almost 

 due south, gains accumulations of shingle so rapidly 

 from the sea, that it is said to have extended more 

 than a mile seaward within the memory of persons living. 

 Rye was founded on the ruins of the Romneys, and also 

 became a Cinque Port ; but notwithstanding the advan- 

 tage of the river Rother flowing past it, that port has 

 also become nearly silted up, and now stands about two 

 miles from the sea. New Winchelsea, the Portsmouth 

 and Spithead of its day, is left stranded like the rest 

 of the old Cinque Ports, and is now but a village sur- 

 rounded by the remains of its ancient grandeur. All 

 this ruin, however, wrought by the invasions of the 

 shingle upon the seacoast towns, has only served to in- 

 crease the area of the rich grazing ground of the marsh, 

 which continues year by year to extend itself seaward. 



The colonists who first reclaimed the district must 

 have found it necessary at once to organize some method 

 of maintaining the lands won from the sea. Accord- 

 ingly we find a very ancient local usage existing 

 in Romney Marsh, which, though at first unwritten, 

 eventually acquired the force of law, and was after- 

 wards extensively applied in other districts. Indeed, 

 ' the law and custom of Romney Marsh'' to this day 

 lies at the bottom of all English legislation on the sub- 

 ject of embanking and draining. Twenty-four of the 

 chief men or elders were chosen by the inhabitants to 

 take all such measures as might be necessary to main- 

 tain the sea-banks, and their custom was to levy a 

 rate upon the occupiers of marsh lands in proportion to 

 their holdings, for the purpose of executing the neces- 

 sary repairs. As long ago as the reign of Henry I IF., 

 or more than six hundred years since, when complaint 



