44 FOORD — ON ENGLISH GEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY. 



place still retaining the name of a bay, althougli it is no longer 

 appropriate as the waves and currents have swept away the ancient 

 headlands,) to the Reculvers displays a good section of the 

 Tertiary beds, I started oiF along the cliff, from the former place 

 to examine it. For the first mile or so the cliffs shelved gently 

 down to the beach, covered with grass and stunted bushes. Further 

 on continual disintegration of the soft clay and sands (partly due 

 to atmospheric causes) , prevented the growth of vegetation of any 

 kind except a few patches of weeds. Landslips of considerable 

 magnitude are constantly occurring. 



In one spot I noticed that at least a quarter of an acre of soil, 

 upon which potatoes were planted, had sunk about ten feet from the 

 top of the bluff upon which I stood ; and now rested on a platform 

 made by a previous falling in of the cliff. When about a mile and 

 a half from the Reculvers I reached a deep gorge, (called Oldhaven 

 Gap,) opening out on to the beach — ^the cliffs forming as it were 

 the walls of the Gap, attaining an altitude of from sixty to eighty 

 feet. At length I arrived at the venerable towers of ** Reculver," 

 and repaired to the '' King Ethelbert" inn, to recruit myself previ- 

 ous to a return to Heme bay, along the sea-shore. A brief ac- 

 count of the past history of this interesting spot will, I venture to 

 think, be acceptable to the Society, especially to those who are in- 

 terested in the subject of Archeology. 



*' Eeculver (Keculvium) was an important military station in 

 the time of the Eomans, and appears, from Leland's account, to 

 have been, so late as Henry YHI's reign, nearly one mile distant 

 from the sea. Some time before the year 1780, the waves had 

 reached the site of the ancient Roman camp, or fortification, the 

 walls of which had continued for several years after they were un- 

 dermined to overhang the sea, being firmly cemented into one mass. 

 They were eighty yards nearer the sea than the church, and they 

 are spoken of in the Topographica Britannica, in the year 1780, as 

 having recently fallen down. In 1804, part of the church-yard, 

 (with some adjoining houses,) was washed away, and the ancient 

 church, with its two spires, was dismantled as a place of worship." 

 (jSir Charles LyelVs ''^Principles of Geology,''^ page 312.) 



I recollect as a child visiting the spot in 1850, and finding some 



