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notice, namely, a duel between two elements ; and although 
I have neither the sweet strains of the poet, nor the exciting 
events of the historian to aid me, yet as I am possessed of 
some facts, certainly not generally known, resulting from 
personal observations of the substructure of an adjoining 
county, I am in hopes that a short digest of these may be 
acceptable. 
A great contest between the sea and the land, leading to 
frequent changes in their respective boundaries, had certainly 
been raging upon the Lincolnshire coast for centuries before 
the arrival of the Romans in Britain, and that period when 
written records began to be kept. Doubtless the ocean has 
there, from time to time, swept far beyond its natural limits 
with an irresistible tide, reaching points in Lincolnshire now 
removed nearly twenty miles from it;* and yet, little by little, 
it has, through its very fury, aided to form a future barrier 
against itself. This it has done by the accumulation of the 
silt left upon its retreat, in concert with the earthy deposits 
caused by the continual flow of the inland waters, not only 
on either side of those points where they have respectively 
found an exit into the sea, but generally in that great bay of 
the Wash and its adjoining shores, reaching from Wainfleet 
to Hunstanton on the Norfolk coast, and so appropriately 
termed by Ptolemy " Mentaris cestuarium," or bay of river 
mouths. In this manner a considerable portion of the division 
of Holland has gradually been gained, or perhaps we may 
say, re-gained from the bed of the sea, whilst the continued 
growth of its coast, as well as of that of the southern part 
of Lindsey, is evinced by the relative position of the sea- 
banks that have been successively raised for its defence. 
* At Roxholme, near Sleaford, there exists a silty stratum abounding with 
cockle and other ordinary sea shells ; and at Holbeach Hum, at a distance of three 
miles from the sea, a seam of cockle shells, three inches thick, was traced by Doctor 
Latham two or three feet below the present surface. This was on land in the 
occupation of Mr. Baily, near Fleet Haven. 
