§ 48. RETROSPECT. 449 



city appeared ;* with its palaces, its temples, and its thousand 

 edifices, and its streets teeming with a busy population in 

 the highest state of civilization ; the resort of the nobles of 

 the land, the residence of the monarch of a mighty empire."f 



* Brighton. 



t The concluding portion of these remarks refers to the changes 

 that have taken place on the Sussex coast, during the historical era. 

 Before the Conquest, the greater part of the then little fishing town of 

 Brighthelmston (Brighthelms-town), or Brighton, was situated below 

 the cliffs, on a terrace of beach and sand, now covered by the wares. 

 The Church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, the patron saint of fishermen, 

 was placed on an eminence, that it might serve as a land-mark. The 

 inroads of the sea led to the erection of buildings on the high ground, 

 and their progressive encroachment gradually diminished the area of 

 the ancient town, till at length a sudden inundation, but little more 

 than a century ago, swept away the houses, fortifications, and in- 

 closures that remained." The sea has, therefore, only resumed its 

 former position at the base of the cliffs ; the site of the old town 

 having been an ancient bed of shingle, abandoned for ages by the 

 ocean, perhaps contemporaneously with the retreat of its waters from 

 the valley of the Ouse. Should the advancement of the sea be pro- 

 gressive, Lewes Levels (ante, p. 61) may again become an estuary, and 

 the town of the Cliff, and the hamlet of Landport, regain the characters 

 from which their names were derived. See A Days Ramble in and 

 about the ancient town of Lewes : by the Author. 1846. 



° Illustrations of the Geology of Sussex, p. 292. Geology of the 

 South-East of England, p. 23. Dallaway's Western Sussex, vol. i. p. 55. 



a g 



