MM. Be Ranee and Topley — Bate of Erosion of Sea- Coasts. 27 



of its own, the Blue Books of the House of Commons, for the 

 various tidal harbours' reports, inaugurated by the persistent agitation 

 of the late Joseph Hume, M.P., as well as those on harbours of 

 refuge, lighthouses, and shipping, give incidentally numerous isolated 

 cases showing how much this really imperial question has been over- 

 looked or confused by a division of authority, and the struggles with 

 lords of the manor, illustrated by a number of well-known cases, 

 adds additional exemplification. 



The legal aspect of this question has been recently ably treated on 

 by a republication of " Hall's Essay on the Eights of the Crown in 

 the Sea-shore," by Kichard Loveland Loveland. of the Inner Temple, 

 in 1875, and this work shows well the imperial character of the 

 inquiry deputed to the British Association Committee on the Erosion 

 of the Sea Coasts of England and Wales. 



As regards the wholesale removal of shingle and boulders from 

 marine spits and moles, it is only necessary to refer to such cases as 

 the quarrying of cement stones from the foreshores on either side of 

 Harwich, from the Beacon cliff to the southward, and from the 

 Felixstow cliffs to the northward, only stopped by the persistent 

 efforts made by Captain Hewett's successor in the North Sea Survey, 

 the late Admiral Washington, and others. For illustration of this 

 pernicious practice and the deplorable results frequently entailed this 

 case suffices. Again, on the northern side, the indiscriminate 

 removal of shingle from the northern breakwater of Harwich har- 

 bour (Landguard Point) for ballastage by the lord of the manor has 

 been the fruitful source of litigation. Similar results from similar 

 practices at Spurn Point, at the mouth of the Humber, have been 

 entailed. In effect, this natural shingle mole, defending the entrance 

 to the most important harbour on our eastern coast, was nearly 

 breached in consequence. 



Next to the removal for ballastage, the most fertile cause is 

 removal of material for road-making and for building purposes, and 

 when in the neighbourhood of a large town this becomes, from the 

 enormous quantity removed in the aggregate, sufficient to tell eventu- 

 ally on the oscillating natural foreshore protection. Take the case 

 of Hastings : for the last half-century there has been a constant draw 

 on the material for such purposes. The quantity used must be 

 enormous, and in effect the new portion of the town may almost, 

 "without figure of speech, be described as in a large measure built out 

 of the sea. About 1836 Hastings was separated from St. Leonards 

 by a small marshy bottom, with a rill of water running through it, 

 called the " Priory Marsh," and during that year the sea was excluded 

 by the erection of a vertical stone wall joining the esplanade terraces, 

 and the two towns became what it is now, one big town. Since that 

 wall was erected the shingle in front of it has, from various causes, 

 become much attenuated, the groynes destroyed, and the sea has, it 

 is said, in places got under the sea walls. So great has been the loss 

 in the bay to the eastward, where is situate the old portion of the 

 town, the fishermen's quarter, that a general exodus of that industry 

 to Rye, or elsewhere, has been threatened. 



