254 H. W. Pearson — Oscillations of Sea-level. 



Town of Eye " situated upon a rocky eminence which two or 

 three centuries ago was washed on all sides by the influx of the 

 tides, but now, in consequence of the gradual recession of the 

 sea, lies two miles inland" (Encyc. Brit., vol. xxi, p. 117). In 

 Charles II's time (1660-1685) a 64-gun frigate could ride in the 

 harbour of Eye ; now a ship of half that size could not obtain an 

 entrance (Clark's " Guide and History of Eye," p. 63). Between 

 1292 and 1340 upwards of 5,500 acres were submerged by the sea 

 in Sussex (Encyc. Brit., vol. xxii, p. 723). "It is said that old 

 Winchelsea contained 50 inns and taverns and 700 householders : 

 here 400 sail of the tallest ships, it is said, anchored in the Camber 

 near Eye, where sheep and cattle now feed." Three hundred 

 houses destroyed by rising of the sea in the year 1250, and the 

 destruction made total by the great inundation of 1287 (Clark's 

 " Guide and History of Eye," pp. 64, 65). 



Great portions of the English Fens were drowned in the years 

 1248, 1250, 1257, 1286, 1292, 1322, 1357, 1358 ; Marshland drowned 

 in 1287, 1289, 1292, 1294, 1295, 1297, 1334, 1339, 1378, 1422, 

 1520, and 1569 ("The Fenland Past and Present," p. 146). "In 

 the year 1362 the unfortunate Marshlanders show that the Lynn 

 Eiver, which formerly was only 12 perches broad, was then 

 a full mile in breadth ; but in the years 1378, 1565, and 1608 

 we find notices showing that the river was growing wider " 

 (p. 212). Eaveneserodd destroyed by the sea, thirteenth and 

 fourteenth centuries. " 1377 and 1393 appear to have been 

 critical years in the waste of this coast" ("Lincolnshire and 

 the Danes," pp. 239, 240). Hugh of Levens, in a petition to the 

 Archbishop of York shortly after 1339, says, " Whereas our manors 

 and lands of Saltagh, Tharlesthorp, Frysmerske, Wythfleet,Dymelton, 

 and Eaveneserodd were so destroyed every day and night by increasing 

 inundations of the waters," etc. (p. 46). Towns of Holton, Northrup, 

 and Newton destroyed at the same time (p. 49). " When Henry IV 

 landed at Eavenspurn, June, 1399, the towns of Eavenser and 

 Eaveneserodd had long been engulfed by the waters " (p. 57). " In 

 that time (1249 to 1269) the sea inundated and passed over its 

 coasts almost throughout the whole eastern part of England, and 

 the Humber, exceeding its limits, covered the land even to our 

 fishing and wood of Cotyngham " (p. 67, quoting "Chronicles of 

 Meaux" ; Boyle, " The Lost Towns of the Humber "). 



" In the thirteenth century the river [Fleet Eiver in London] 

 was of such breadth and depth that ten or twelve ships at once with 

 merchandise were wont to come to the bridge of Fleet and some of 

 them to Holborn bridge " (Whealey, " London Past and Present," 

 p. 52). After the great fire (1666) "the citizens had it deepened 

 between Holborn and the Thames so that barges might ascend with 

 the tide as far as Holborn as before" (p. 53). See copy of drawing 

 on stairway of St. Martin's Free Library, London, by Anty' van den 

 Wyngaerde (original in Bodleian Library, Oxford). Date of picture, 

 15*43. This shows Moats of Tower on a level with the Thames and 

 full of water. Shows also Fleet Eiver with bridges at Fleet and 



