. Vanishing England . was once an island ; now the little Rother stream con-veys small vessels to the sea, which looks very far away. We cannot follow all the victories of the sea. Wemight examine the inroads made by the waves at stood the first cathedral of the district before Chi-chester was founded. The building is now beneath thesea, and since Saxon times half of the Selsea Bill has van-ished. The village of Selsea rested securely in the centreof the peninsula, but only half a mile now separates itfrom the sea. Some land has been gained near this pro-jecting headland b
. Vanishing England . was once an island ; now the little Rother stream con-veys small vessels to the sea, which looks very far away. We cannot follow all the victories of the sea. Wemight examine the inroads made by the waves at stood the first cathedral of the district before Chi-chester was founded. The building is now beneath thesea, and since Saxon times half of the Selsea Bill has van-ished. The village of Selsea rested securely in the centreof the peninsula, but only half a mile now separates itfrom the sea. Some land has been gained near this pro-jecting headland by an industrious farmer. His farmsurrounded a large cove with a narrow mouth through 24 VANISHING ENGLAND which the sea poured. If he could only dam up thatentrance, he thought he could rescue the bed of the coveand add to his acres. He bought an old ship and sankit by the entrance and proceeded to drain. But a tire-some storm arose and drove the ship right across thecove, and the sea poured in again. By no means dis-. Disused Mooring--Post on bank of the Rother, Rye couraged, he dammed up the entrance more effectually,got rid of the water, increased his farm by many acres,and the old ship makes an admirable cow-shed. The Isle of Wight in remote geological periods waspart of the mainland. The Scilly Isles were once joinedwith Cornwall, and were not severed until the fourteenthcentury, when by a mighty storm and flood, 140 churchesand villages were destroyed and overwhelmed, and 190square miles of land carried away. Much land has been DISAPPEARANCE OF ENGLAND 25 lost in the Wirral district of Cheshire. Great forestshave been overwhelmed, as the skulls and bones of deerand horse and fresh-water shell-fish have been frequentlydiscovered at low tide. Fifty years ago a distance ofhalf a mile separated Leasowe Castle from the sea ; nowits walls are washed by the waves. The Pennystone, offthe Lancashire coast by Blackpool, tells of a submergedvillage and manor, about which cluster rom
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