320 
FLOOD OF 1099. 
modern times has committed devastations and en¬ 
croachments to no small amount. In consideration 
of these contending circumstances, I repeat it is 
impossible to say whether the sea subsequently to 
the great elevation above referred to, retreated to an 
intermediate position, or to a level very near that 
at which it now stands : to decide such a point, it 
would be requisite to ascertain the comparative 
power of the above circumstances throughout the 
intervening time. 
Before going further, it is requisite to observe 
that we are not of necessity limited to the suppo¬ 
sition of only one marine elevation and depression. 
In modern centuries—it is well ascertained from 
chroniclers,—this country has been visited by nu¬ 
merous floods and earthquakes, which are indeed 
synonimous expressions for convulsions or move¬ 
ments conducted in the interior of the globe. The 
“ Saxon Chronicle” records a flood of great extent 
occurring in 1099, and affecting the southern 
counties in a remarkable degree. There is a tradition 
among the inhabitants of the parish, that the Church 
of Revelstoke, now situated on the very cliff, was 
originally three miles inland, and as the Churches 
generally around the coast of South Devon are 
considered by antiquarians as among the oldest of 
the kind, and as it is particularly unlikely that a 
fabric of this description should have been built in 
such a precarious position, I think we may infer, 
that it together with some other of our Churches 
in similar localities, were reduced to their littoral 
situations during the flood above named, when also 
it has been conjectured, a part of the estate of Earl 
Godwyn (now “ Godwyn Sands”) was swallowed 
up. Certain it is, that in Bigbury Bay off the spot 
where Revelstoke Church occurs, no anchorage can 
be obtained, the ground being shallow and rocky. 
It is a coincidence, that the second Church of 
