BATE OF EROSION OF THE SEA-COASTS OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 923 



Appendix. 



The gale of October 7, which caused the breach in the breakwater, commenced 

 from S.S.E. and veered subsequently to S.S.W., from which quarter it continued the 

 following da}'. During the rest of the month it blew alternately from the westward 

 and eastward, slightly in excess from the former quarter ; but during the month of 

 November there was an unusual amount of easterly winds, and from the middle to the 

 end of the month strong gales from that quarter were experienced. 



Since my first inspection of these works the wind has been entirely from the west, 

 the continuous east wind in November accounting for the extreme lowness of the 

 beach during my survey, and the change of wind producing re-accumulation. 



4. SAND OWN CASTLE. 



To the Secretary of State for War. 



5 New Palace Yard, Westminster, S.W., October 11, 1860, 



Sir, — Your instructions of August 11 last directed me to report — 



First, on the practicability of permanently maintaining the Castle even though it 

 •were entirely separated from the sliore on either side of it. 



Secondly, as to the mode I should propose to adopt for this object ; and 



Thirdly, as to the probable cost of such an undertaking. 



With this view I visited the spot the morning of the 17th ultimo and repeated my 

 inspections the three following days, and was certainly not prepared for the great 

 change that has taken place since I reported four years back, in 1856. In that report 

 I detailed at length the then condition of the shore, illustrated by an accompanying 

 plan from Sandown Esplanade to Battery No. 1. 



The beach has continued to retreat and gain on the shore, as this latter is washed 

 away. North of the esplanade and between it and the windmill the edge of the 

 bank that crops through the upper shingle ' full ' is now considerably behind the line 

 of the esplanade railings with which it was in a line in 1856. The foreshore northward 

 is thinner, and although the South Castle groyne and timber revetment hold a cer- 

 tain quantity of shingle in check, which, however, was recently scoured away and 

 has since re-accumulated, and is, indeed, as high at the south groyne as in 1856, the 

 condition of the shore northward is altogether altered. 



1 may state generally that towards the western ends of the groynes the shore has 

 lowered to the following extent : at the south intermediate groyne it is on an average 

 3 feet lower ; at the centre groyne, the western end of which for 30 feet in length 

 next the Castle has disappeared, the shore is 4 to 5 feet lower ; at the north inter- 

 mediate groyne 3 to 6 feet lower ; and at the north groyne 8 feet to 13 feet lower. 

 Indeed, this work had been left hanging up, as it were, at its landward end until 

 upset by the fall of the north moat revetment counterscarp wall, the shore being 

 washed away down to the very pile shoes, and the same remark applies to the north 

 timber revetment, from behind which the shingle has been scoured out vertically for 

 a depth of at least from 12 to 15 feet, leaving a clean section of sand-hill 12 feet in 

 height fronting the sea, where formerly existed a shingle mole ; and 16 feet in height 

 of the old moat-wall is also exposed. 



All the old ' fulls ' of beach north of the north groyne are gone ; they appear to 

 have gradually decreased for the last three years, but a ' full ' of beach level with the 

 top of the north timber revetment, now entirely isolated, existed, it appears, six 

 months past ; the mark, indeed, maj' be seen on the adjoining moat wall, the shore is 

 now 12 feet lower, and what shingle there is, is driven landward. Northward of this, 

 towards Battery No. 1, the degradation of the shore has been almost as remark- 

 able, and the sand ' dunes ' now crop for continuous lengths through the shingle mole 

 (which is now much thinner and further inland), and not in isolated patches as 

 described in my report of 1856. The effect of this has been the almost entire de- 

 struction of the sea works of Battery No. 1. 



The result of this remarkable lowering of the" foreshore immediately under the 

 Castle, consequent upon the disappearance of the mole of shingle northwards, has 

 been the continued and increased exposure of the base of that work ; and although 

 various attempts have been made to underpin the footings, the main Castle-walls, 

 from numerous appearances therein, appear to have received some amount of injury 

 from the constant percolation of water under the foundations, and the withdrawal 

 therefrom of the same on the recession of the tide causing the loose sand to be drawn 

 away from below the hard crust of sand on which the edifice immediately rests, and 



