THE ISLE OF RUIM. 239 



bury, made over to the lady whose name is conveniently 

 Latinised as Dompneva, first abbess, some forty-eight 

 plough-lands in the Isle of Thanet. This cultivated 

 district, bounded by the ancient earthwork known (from 

 the name of the second abbess) as St. Mildred's Lynch, 

 lay almost entirely within the westward-sloping and 

 mainly tertiary lands ; the higher chalk country was as 

 yet apparently considered unfit for tillage. The existing 

 remains of Minster Abbey are, of course, of comparatively 

 late Plantagenet date ; but as parts of a great grange, 

 whose still larger granary was burnt down only in the 

 last century, they serve well to show the importance of the 

 monastic system as a civilizing agency in the country 

 districts of England. 



Already in Bede's time the Wantsum was beginning to 

 get silted up, mainly by the muddy deposits brought 

 down by the Stour. It was then only three furlongs 

 wide, and could be forded at two points, near Sarr and 

 at Wade. The seaward mouth was also beginning to be 

 encumbered with sand, and the first indication we get of 

 this important impending change is the fact that we now 

 hear less of Eichborough, and more of Sandwich, the new 

 port a little nearer the sea, whose very name of the Wick 

 or haven on the Sand, in itself sufficiently tells the 

 history of its origin. As the older port got progressively 

 silted up, the newer one grew into ever greater import- 

 ance, exactly as Norwich ousted Caister, or as Ports- 

 mouth has taken the place of Porchester. Nevertheless, 

 the central channel still remained navigable for the vessels 

 of that age they can only have drawn a very few feet of 

 water and this made the Wantsum in time the great 



