

Cii. xx. i 



ISLE OF THANET. 



525 



from the cliff, near the top. The whole building would pro- 

 bably have been swept away long ere this, had not the force 

 of the waves been checked by an artificial causeway of stones 

 and large wooden piles driven into the sands on the beach to 

 break the force of the waves. 



Isle of Thanet. — The isle of Thanet was, in the time of the 

 Bomans, separated from the rest of 

 channel, through which the Roman fleets sailed on their way 

 to and from London. Bede describes this small estuary as 

 bein°', in the beginning of the eighth century, three furlongs 

 in breadth ; and it is supposed that it began to grow shallow 

 about the period of the Norman Conquest. It was so far silted 

 up in the year 1845, that an Act was obtained to build a 



Kent 



become marsh 



small streams running through it. 

 Farm, belonging to the hospital of 



name 



t, Bedlam 

 lost eight 



acres in the twenty years preceding 1830, the land being 



from 



the sea. 



comp 

 North 



distance of about eleven miles, is not less than two feet per 



The chalk cliffs on the south of Thanet, between 



annum 



Eamsgate and Pegwell Bay, had on an average lost three 

 feet per annum during the ten years preceding 1830. 



Goodwin Sands.— The Goodwin Sands lie opposite this part 

 of the Kentish coast. They are about ten miles in length, 

 and are in some parts three, and in others seven, miles dis- 

 tant from the shore ; and for a certain space, are laid bare at 

 low water. That they are a remnant of land, and not < a 

 mere accumulation of sea sand,' as Eennell imagined,* may 



house 



on 



id from the fact that, when the 

 this shoal was in contemplat 



Trinity 



Board in the year 1817, it was found, by borings, that the 

 bank consisted of fifteen feet of sand, resting on blue clay ; 

 and, by subsequent borings, the subjacent chalk has been 



reached. An obscure tradition has come 

 the estates of Earl Goodwin, the father 



Harold, who 



died in the year 1053, were situated here, and some have 



* Gcog. of Herod, vol. ii. p. 326. 



r 



4 



I 



