140 INFLUENCE OF THE SEA. 



thrown over a rising ledge to the distance of 12 ui 

 15 paces ; and an anchor, weighing about 22 cwto 

 was thrown upon the rock. Mr. Stevensen informs 

 us that drift-stones measuring upward of 30 cubic 

 feet, or more than two tons' weight, have, during 

 storms, been often thrown upon the rock from deep 

 water. 



Mr. Lyell farther remarks, that " in the old maps 

 of Yorkshire we find spots, now sandbanks in the 

 sea, marked as the ancient sites of the towns and 

 villages of Auburn, Hartburn, and Hyde." " Of 

 Hyde," says Pennant, " only the tradition is left ; 

 and near the village of Hoonsea, a street called 

 Hoonsea Beck has long since been swallowed. 

 Owthorne and its church have also been in great 

 part destroyed, and also the village of Kilnsey ; the 

 rate of encroachment at Owthorne being about /owr 

 yards a year^ Upon the coasts of Norfolk, in Eng- 

 land, the encroachment of the sea upon the land is 

 rapid and incessant. The whole site of ancient 

 Cromer now forms a part of the German Ocean, and 

 the inhabitants are constantly moving inland to es- 

 cape the ravages of the sea. In the winter of 1825, 

 a mass was precipitated into the sea which cover- 

 ed twelve acres, the cliffs being 250 feet high. 

 The ancient villages of Shipden, Wimpwell, and 

 Eccles have disappeared on the same coast ; sev- 

 eral manors and large portions of neighbouring par- 

 ishes having, piece after piece, been swallowed up : 

 nor has there been any intermission, from time im- 

 memorial, in the ravages of the sea along a line of 

 coast twenty miles in length where these places 

 stood. At Durwich, also, the sea has committed 

 extensive ravages. Here two tracts of land, which 

 had been taxed in the eleventh century, were a 

 few years afterward devoured by the sea. We 

 have also an account of the losses, at a subsequent 

 period, of a monastery, then of several churches, 

 then of 400 houses at once, then of the church of 



