SECOND SHALE. 85 



While speaking- of this lofty promontory, it may be proper to 

 remark, that it has been supposed to be vastly diminished since the 

 close of the twelfth century; as its superficial extent is estimated by 

 William of Newburgh at sixty acres, whereas it is now less than 

 twenty acres. But if we consider, that Leland, who wrote little 

 more than 300 years after William of Newburgh, and about 300 years 

 before the present time, states the extent to be sixteen acres ; we can- 

 not doubt, that there is a mistake in the text of William of Newburgh, 

 the word sexaginta (sixty) having been substituted for sexdecim (sioe- 

 teen); and consequently, that the area occupied by the castle is 

 nearly the same now, as it was six centuries ago, the ancient acres 

 being larger than the modern.* In further confirmation of this, we 

 need only refer to a document drawn up in the ]4th. of Edwai'd III, 

 by which it appears, that at that era, not more than 150 years after 

 the time of William of Newburgh, the pasture ground in the area of 

 the castle was reckoned onXy fifteen acres-t Indeed, that historian's 

 own description of the place corresponds so exactly with present 

 appearances, as to preclude the idea, that these rocks have under- 

 gone any material change during the last six centuries, — These ob- 

 servations, it is hoped, will not be deemed superfluous, as they may 

 serve to correct the erroneous notions which some have advanced, 

 concerning the rapidity with which our rocky shores are dilapidated. 

 In proceeding along the shore, north-west from Scarborough, we 

 find the continuation of the second shale ; but the beds are generally 

 much thinner than in the east front of the castle rocks, and the cal- 

 careous series above the shale is discontinued ; a bed or two of sand- 

 stone, chiefly siliceous, being all that we find over the shale, except 

 the alluvial covering. The latter, indeed, in some places comes down 



* See History of Whitby and the Vicinity, II. p. 738. Note. 



t See the document in Hinderwell's History of Scarborough (8vo.) p. 53, 54. 



