THE INSULATION OF ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT. 21 
for the superior civilization and courtesy of the dwellers near 
the Land’s End, was their intercourse with merchants—an advan- 
tage which must have been enjoyed by the Vectians in a much 
higher degree than by the Cornubians, if the Iktis were on the 
coast of Hampshire, instead of that of Cornwall. Moreover, 
there is no reason to believe that in the time of Diodorus the Isle 
of Wight was a peninsula at low water. What evidence there 
is on the point, is decidedly in the opposite direction. Thus, 
Bede, who died in 735, calls attention to the same remarkable 
tidal phenomena in the Solent by which it is at present character- 
ised.* The accounts which have reached us of its conquest by 
Vespasian in 43 A.D. do not so represent it ; and it is noteworthy 
that in the earliest traditions respecting the spot it is regarded as 
an island: Thus, the following is the sixty-seventh of the Historical 
Triads of Britain :-—“‘The three primary islands attached to the 
Isle of Britain—Orkney, Man, and Wight. At a subsequent period 
the sea broke through the land, and Anglesea became an island ; 
and in a similar manner the Orkney Isle was broken, and many 
islands were formed in consequence, and other parts of Scotland 
and Cambria became islands.” + Without insisting on the his- 
torical value of the Triads, attention may be called to the fact 
that a tradition, which ventures back to a time when Anglesea 
was part of the mainland and the Orkneys were one and un- 
divided, recognizes the earliest condition of the Wight as that of 
an island. 
' Nor are we without evidence that the relative level of sea and 
land in other parts of Britain has remained unchanged from 
the earliest times of history. Mr. Whitley informs me that 
whilst he found the old Roman embankment at the Wash, from 
two to four miles inside the outer fringe of the Marsh lands, from 
the gathering of warp on the outside; it is on the same level as 
the new embankment built outside to exclude the tide. He pro- 
perly regards this as strong evidence that no change in the level 
of the land has taken place since the Roman occupation.t 
Again, every reader of Scott's Marmion will no doubt re- 
* Heclesiastical History, Bk. iv, Ch. 16. 
+ See Notes and Queries, 4th §. vol. ili, p. 23, January 2, 1869. 
t Private letter, August 6, 1867. 
