East Riding of Yorkshire. 
89 
of it, near Settrington, the Kimmeritlge clay is seen in situ un- 
derlying the chalk, and throwing out frequent springs, as is the 
case in other places along the northern and western escarpment of 
this range of hills. 
Holderness. — Holderness has been generally designated, as its 
name implies, a low level tract. The name, however, implies 
somewhat more than this, and, in truth, an accurate survey of the 
district fully justifies its etymology ; for this long projection of 
flat land is more hollow in the interior than at the line of coast. 
This the watershed proves, all the watercourses in Holderness 
falling westward and south-westward from the coast towards the 
river Hull. The annual encroachments which the sea makes upon 
the clay cliffs have been accurately ascertained and measured;* 
and several villages have within the period of history been washed 
away, such as Auburn, Hyde, Ravenspurn, &c. ; so that, as the 
sea-barrier extended farther eastward, it was probably higher 
ground than it is at present ; and perhaps, therefore, when our 
Saxon ancestors named it, the title of HoUow-der-ness was even 
more appropriate than it is now. The declination, however, 
from the east is inconsiderable, and thus in times when drainage 
was unknown, and the watercourses were permitted to flow as 
nature directed, an extensive swamp, called the Carrs, was formed 
at the union of these sluggish streams with the river Hull. 
It appears that no attempt whatever was made to drain these 
Carrs until a comparatively recent period, but that they were per- 
mitted to remain a profitless morass, producing ague to the neigh- 
bourhood, and only affording shelter to the bittern and the heron. 
In the year 1761 an Act was passed, called 'The Beverley and 
Barmston Drainage Act,' by which powers were given for straight- 
ening the river Hull, and confining it within an artificial em- 
bankment ; and also for making a subsidiary drain at a lower 
level, for the purpose of carrying off the flood-waters of Upper 
and Middle Holderness, and for discharging them into the river 
Hull near to its mouth by means of flood-gates. This tidal 
drainage, however, proved insufficient after very heavy rains, and 
the Carrs were inundated notwithstanding. Another outlet, 
therefore, has been subsequently made, and the waters have been 
conveyed by a cut of some magnitude into the river Humber, 
about three miles below the town of Hull. 
The soils of Holderness are chiefly diluvial, and consist for 
the most part of clay, which clay corresponds, doubtless, with a 
detrital deposit described by Mr. Trimmer in a recent paper of 
* Several admeasurements of different parts of the coast are given by 
Mr. Strickland. From these it appears that in some places the waste is as 
.much as two yards of cliff a year. Upon the whole the encroachments 
average about one yard per annum. 
