THE BASIN OF THE THAMES. 



151 



bounded by a line drawn from the î^ortli Foreland through the Gunfleet beacon 

 to Harwich Naze. 



The littoral region which bounds the estuary of the Thames to the north and 

 south has undergone frequent changes during the historical epoch. The sea 

 gains almost incessantly upon the coasts of Suffolk and Norfolk, advancing at a 

 speed of 6 to 15 feet annually. Towns have been compelled to retreat inland, 

 and the old church of Eccles-by-the-Sea is now buried beneath sand piled up 

 by the waves.* Elsewhere changes of an opposite kind have taken place. 

 Estuaries have become silted up, and ancient seaport towns reduced into agri- 

 cultural villages. Beccles, which had a much-frequented port in the fourteenth 

 century, now lies 8 miles inland, and the trade which formerly was its own is 



Fig. 83.— The Isle of Thaxet. 

 Scale 1 : 206.(XiO. 



E.ofG. ■ 



Foreshore. 



1 Mile. 



carried on now by the modern town of Lowestoft.f Changes of even greater impor- 

 tance have taken place along the coast of Kent, where the geographical features of 

 the country have undergone radical alterations since the time of the Romans. The 

 ancient church of the Reculvers, which may be seen on a low cliff to the west 

 of Margate, bears witness to the erosive action prej-ing upon the coast, for the 

 Roman city of Regulbiœ, which subsequently became the capital of a Saxon 

 kingdom, stood at a considerable distance from the sea. The waves have gnawed 

 the coast, the Roman wall which surrounded the city has for the most part been 

 destroyed, and in order to protect the church, which serves as a landmark to 

 mariners, from a similar fate, the Admiralty has been obliged to construct a sea- 



* A. Eamsaj-, " Physical Geolojjj- and Geography of Great Britain." 

 t Rogers; 0. Peschel, " Neue Problème der %-ergleiclienden Erdkuude." 



