Cn. XX.] 



THE ISLE OF SHEPPEY. 



523 



feet high, decay rapidly, fifty acres having been lost in twenty 

 years, between 1810 and 1830. The church at 



Minste 



near the coast, is said to have been in the middle of the 

 island in 1780 ; and if the present rate of destruction should 

 continue,- we might calculate the period, and that not a very 

 remote one, when the whole island will be annihilated. On 

 the coast of the mainland to the east of Sheppey is Heme 



Fig. 46 





View of Keculver Church, taken in the year 1781. 



1. Isle of Sheppey. 2. Ancient chapel now destroyed. The cottage between 



this chapel and the cliff was demolished by the sea, in 1782. 



name 



is no longer appropriate, as the waves and currents have 



swept away the ancient headlands. 



formerly 



small promontory in the line of the shoals where the present 

 pier is built, by which the larger bay was divided into two 

 called the Upper and Lower .* 



Still farther east stands the church of Keculver, upon a 



cliff 



com 



from 



gulvium) was an important military station in 

 be Romans, and appears, from Leland's account, 

 , so late as Henry VIIL's reign, nearly one mile 

 the sea. In the ' Gentleman's Magazine ' there 



* On the authority of W. Gunnel, Esq., and W. Richardson, Esq., F. G. S. 



