Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/423

 $88 T H EX* M t S T 6 k tf : > l$c*k'# Ih thefeforty years ithas greatly ufappdd upbn the Sifley iflandi ,itt general ,7, and even froib May 1766 to May 1767 it encroached near forty ' iridhcs upon - otie 6f them * in particular. • ' And theft? gradual and fudceffive depredatibfltf, thefe 1 afnd thefe alorie, muflf afltriredly have been the aliife 'that has beeiyfo vainly explored In the annals of hiftory, and that has reduced the Silley Iflands tor their pfefent condition. Thefe, and not the violence of an Earthquake or a tempdft/muftafiu redly have Widened the narrov£ turbid' ftrait bf Sblmusiiito an ample 'arid calni expanfe of thirty err Forty Whiles, have covered 4 half the great 1 ifland of Silurawith ffi£ Waters' df the ocean, and have left only its mountains and ite promontories riling like fo many iflets- above the face of thd waves. r Thefe appear from the experience of the recent ravages sflthe iflandfr tobe-acaufe too unhappily adecjti*t6 to the &8e6t% Afccl the fame caufe has jgrtsfttly pltmde^eld the coafts of North* Dfcvonftiitt Pembrokeshire' and Cardigbnfiiirte % But thefea has tefigiied a part of its original domain on the fouthern (here- of Kent in Lincolnfhire afcd in Lancashire. In Kent it has re* trtfatfed ' £ rom thte fhord of Sandwich; ha* funk the fmall asftuary ■fine harbour of Rhutupa?, where the Roman fleet was regularly laid up, into an expanfe of rich pafhires and a valley watered wkh a rivulet ,9 . In Lmcolnlhir £ it has added a confrderable quantity of ground to the coaft, Shrinking from the original boundaries* and- leaving many thoufands of actes betwixt the Old bank- df •cafhire the fand§ which originally formed the beach of- the fea ' and were originally covered every tide with its waters are now the appellation which they received from the Britons* and which is equ ally common to the fea-fands of Lincoluihire Norfolk and Wales, the appellation of Meates or loofe qUaggy lands ". JJut loofe as they once were by nature, and quaggy as. they wese once made by the overflowing of the tide, they arem>w annually , cultivated, a parochial church has been e reded ^ and a village has Jbeeii conftnj&cd upoa.tjaerru In
 * of Solinus into aii irifignificant current, and has Converted ithe
 * ks waters and the prefent margin of ks fhore" 10 . And ia Lan-
 * regularly inhabited. Thefe art ftill diftinguifhed among us by