530 



ENCROACHMENTS OE THE SEA 



[Ch. XX. 



borders of the chalk of the South Downs on this coast will 

 probably be annihilated, and future geologists will learn, 

 from historical documents, the ancient geographical bounda- 

 ries of this group of strata in that direction. On the oppo- 

 site of the estuary of the Ouse, on the east of Newhaven 

 harbour a bed of shingle, composed of chalk flints derived 



from 



Seaford for several centuries. In the great storm of Novem- 



ber 1824, this bank was entirely swept away, and the town 

 of Seaford inundated. Another great beach of shingle is 

 now forming from fresh materials. 



The whole coast of Sussex has been incessantly encroached 

 upon by the sea from time immemorial ; and, although sud- 

 den inundations only, which overwhelmed fertile or inhabited 

 tracts, are noticed in history, the records attest an extraor- 

 dinary amount of loss. During a period of no more than 

 eighty years, there are notices of about twenty inroads, m 

 which tracts of land of from twenty to four hundred acres in 

 extent were overwhelmed at once, the value of the tithes 

 being mentioned in the Taxatio Ecclesiastical In the reign 

 of Elizabeth, the town of Brighton was situated on that 

 tract where the chain pier now extends into the sea. In the 

 year 1665 twenty-two tenements had been destroyed under 

 the cliff. At that period there still 



remain 



whelmed 



1703 and 1705. No 



of the ancient town are now 



mere 



perceptible, yet there is evidence that the sea has 

 resumed its ancient position at the base of the cliffs, the site 



dy a beach abandoned by 



town having been mer 



the ocean for ages. 



Hampsh 



fW 



•It would be endless to allude 

 ussex and Hampshire coasts 



to all the localities on the Sussex and 

 where the land has given way ; but I may point out the re- 

 lation which the geological structure of the Isle of Wight 

 bears to its present shape, as attesting that the coast owes its 

 outline to the continued action of the sea. Through the 





i 





i 







1 



iltl 





mot 





whi 



wai 













•?. 



* 



• 





mi 



» 



* Mantell, Geology of Sussex, p. 293. 



