Ch. XX.] 



T1IK EASTEKN COAST OF ENGLAND. 



513 







gradually retreated inland to their present situation, from 



whence the sea still threatens to dislodge them. In the 

 winter of 1825, a fallen mass was precipitated from near the 

 lighthouse, which covered twelve acres, extending far into 

 the sea, the cliffs being 250 feet in height.* The undermin- 

 ing by springs has sometimes caused large portions of the 

 upper part of the cliffs, with houses still standing upon them, 

 to give way, so that it is impossible, by erecting breakwaters 

 at the base of the cliffs, permanently to ward off the danger. 

 Mr. Redman states that during the twenty-three years which 

 elapsed between the Ordnance Survey of 1838 and the year 

 1861, a portion of the cliff composed of sand and clay, be- 

 tween Cromer and Mundesley, receded 330 feet, amounting 

 to a mean annual waste of fourteen feet ; and the cliff at Hap- 

 pisburgh has, according to his estimate, wasted at the rate 



t 



^st, says Mr 

 Wimpwell, 



several manors and large portions of neighbouring parishes 

 having, piece after piece, been swallowed up ; nor has there 

 been any intermission, from time immemorial, in the ravages 

 of the sea along a line of coast twenty miles in length, in 

 which these places stood. J Of Eccles, however, a monument 

 still remains in the ruined tower of the old church. So early 

 as 1605 the inhabitants petitioned James I. for a reduction 

 of taxes, as 300 acres of land, and all their houses, save four- 

 teen, had then been destroyed by the sea. Not one half 

 that number of acres now remains in the parish, and hills of 

 blown sand called ' Marrams ' now occupy the site of the 

 houses which were still extant in 1605. When I visited 



the spot in 



1839, 



I found the tower of the church half 



buried in the dunes of sand, as represented in the drawing 

 (fig. 43), and twenty three years afterwards my friend the 

 Rev. S. W. King made a sketch from nearly the same spot 

 which is given in fig. 44. In the interval the sand dunes, 



* Taylor's Geology of East Norfolk, 

 p. 32. 



t East Coast between Thames and 

 Wash, J. B. Hodman, C. E., Proc. Inst. 



Civil Engineers, vol. xxiii. pp. 31, S3. 

 1864. 



\ Taylor's Geology of East Norfolk, 



p. <J£. 



VOL. I. 



L L 



