Cil XX.] 



THE EASTERN COAST OF ENGLAND. 



521 



waves reminds us of the scene which has been so well 

 depicted by Bewick,* and of which numerous points on the 

 same coast might have suggested the idea. On the verge of 

 a cliff, which the sea has undermined, are represented the 

 unshaken tower and western end of an abbey. The eastern 

 aisle is gone, and the pillars of the cloister are soon to follow. 



promo 



mortal 



relics, and thrown up a skull upon the beach. In the fore- 

 erected, as its legend 

 of one whose name is 



tombstone 



ground is seen a broken 



tells, ' to perpetuate the memor 



obliterated, as is that of the county for which he was ' Custos 



Rotulorum 



cormorant is perched on the monument 

 remind some moralizer, like Hamlet, of 



may 



Had 



excellent artist desired to satirize certain popular theories of 

 geology, he might have inscribed the stone to the memory of 

 some philosopher who taught 'the permanency of existing 

 continents ' — ' the era of repose ? — ' the impotence of modern 



causes. 



formerly 



destructive, and this borough is known to have been once 



mile 



The 



continued 



at the extremity of their property, and then the town de- 

 cayed greatly ; but two sand-banks, thrown up at a short 

 distance, now afford a temporary safeguard to the coast. 

 Between these banks and the present shore, where the cur- 

 rent now flows, the sea is twenty-four feet deep on the spot 

 where the town formerly stood. 



Essex. — Harwich is said to have owed its rise to the de- 

 struction of Orwell, a town which stood on the spot now 

 called ' the west rocks,' and was overwhelmed by an inroad 

 of the sea since the Conquest. Apprehensions have been 

 entertained that the isthmus on which Harwich stands may 



remote period become 



may 



expected to make a breach near Lower Dover Court, where 



* History of British Birds, vol. ii. p. 220, eel. 1821. 



