THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
occurred before the Norman Conquest. In The 
Gentleman’s Magazine for 1756 (vol. xxxvi, p. 160) 
there is an account of a landslip which occurred 
near this place in 1725. The slip occurred during 
a very wet season. A farmhouse slid down about 
50 feet during the night, so gently that, it is said, 
the people inside were not aware of what had hap- 
pened until in the morning they were unable to 
open the door. A similar gentle movement of the 
ground is apparent at Sandgate, where, during the 
recent slip, a greenhouse was wrecked, but it fell 
so slcwly that most of the glass was unbroken. 
Slips frequently occur along the Atherheld clay 
near Hythe. Small movements of this kind occur- 
red at the same time as the recent Sandgate 
landslip. 
Behind the town of Sandgate there is a high cliff 
of Folkestone beds, below which come the Sand- 
gate beds. At the western ] art of the town there 
are the Hythe beds, which also appear as rocks 
on the shore in front of the town. The dip of the 
strata is towards the north-east; the normal dip is 
gentle, but high dips are sometimes seen which 
may be due to slips. A deep cutting for a sewer 
is now open on the slope near the centre rf the 
town. The effects of the old landslips are evident 
here, for below sandy clay of the Sandgate beds 
there are masses of peaty stuff containing recent 
plants. This old landslip must have been far more 
extensive than now appears, for its seaward front 
had been worn bade by the w ives before the town 
was built. 
Special local causes may possibly have some 
influence in determining the exact position and 
origin of any landslip along this coat; but the 
main cause is always the same— the saturation of 
the land by heavy rams The nearest rain-gauge 
to Sandgate is th-it at Hythe where observations 
have been taken for many years by Mr. H. B. 
Mackeson, F <■ s. The average rainfall for Februa- 
ry at Hythe, during the ten years 1883-1892, was 
1*95 inch, with 13'8 wet, lays. This year the fall 
was 4’3 incites, twenty-four out of the twenty- 
eight days being wet; 106 inch fell on one day 
(February 21st). 
The Sandgate beds, in their undisturbed state, 
are only moderately retentive of moisture, from 
the large amount of clay which they contain; but 
when in a slipped, and broken condition, as at 
361 
Sandgate, they can contain a great deal of water. 
The recent excessive rains saturated the ground, 
and rendered the whole mass unstable. 
The recent slip took place along an area 2775 
feet in length, with a maximum breadth of 700 
feet, measured from the back of the Encombe 
grounds to high-water mark. The foreshore was 
also moved for a breadth of perhaps 300 feet in all. 
The extreme eastern limited is the eastern end 
of the coostguard station; the western limit is 
just opposite the centre of the Military Hospital. 
The greatest vertical movement seems to have 
been about lOfeet — this is in the Encombe grounds; 
the horizontal movement of the slip is also small. 
The maximum effects are to be seen in various 
places in an l near the Enoc mbe grounds; fortu- 
nately, there are few buildings here. 
The rocks on the shore were slightly moved, a 
bed of clay being ridged up about 4 feet. This 
movement of the rocky Hythe beds, and of the clay 
lying near, was probable clue entirely to pressure 
from the moving mass of Sandgate beds. 
As a “landslip” the movement is a comparatively 
small affair, and would have attracted but little 
attention were it not for the damage to M uses; 
this unfortunately, is large. No dwelling-house 
actually fell, but many are so much injured that 
they must be taken down. 
The prevention of future slips is a simple matter, 
thought necessarily a costly one for so small a 
place. Deep drains must lie carried along the back 
of the undercliff, to carry off the water percolating 
from the Folkestone beds above; the undercliff 
must also be throughly dr. iued, and no surface- 
water, other than that due to the rainfall on the 
area itself, must be allowed to enter the ground. 
This is the plan recommoi ded to the local board 
by Mr. Baldwin Latham. 
Much has been said about the probable effects 
of blowing up two wrecks off the shore — the Caly- 
pso in June 1892, and the Bsnvenue between Sep- 
tember and December 1892. Bat any effect due to 
the former should have been .felt long ago. The 
vibrations caused by the Benvenue explosions seem 
(1) In By 'lion's ‘ Monthly Meteorological Maga- 
zine for March. tlu-re is an ace uni of “The Sand- 
gate Disaster,” giving details of the February rain- 
fall in East Kent , the fall varying in sir stations 
from 8‘0G to J that at Hythe being the largest, 
