of the sun at low water, and added much to the romantic appearance of Broadstairs' bathing sands; but three years afterwards it was washed away in a heavy gale, and the land must have lost considerably at the same time: thus it is easy to foretell that, without an artificial breakwater is run out to the beacon, Broadstairs' harbour in fifty years will be quite open to south-west gales, and afford no shelter whatever. And we may also perceive that the sea is encroaching in lieu of receding, along the whole of this line of coast. The shrine of our Lady, and the broadstairs leading up to it, are washed away, and the mariner no longer lowers his sails in token of salutation and religious devotion as he passes. At Kingsgate the arch formerly dedicated to St. Bartholemew is gone. The public-house which, in the memory of persons now living, had a garden in front, and a carriage road past, now exhibits a very singular spectacle; the front of the house is gone, and the part remaining peers over the precipice as if anxious to follow its better half into the world of waters:-1850-not a vestige now remains.

If then, our own age shows us the remains of antiquity melting away around us upon our coast, while in other countries, not far distant, islands and volcanoes rise into existence, and cities are devastated by the convulsions of nature, reflection should teach us not to be too sceptical as to the traditions of our fathers; and we will now, for our amusement, consider the accounts which have been handed down to us relative to the Godwin Sands.

The Belgic writers assert that Godwin's Isle was swallowed up by the sea. It is also a very curious fact that some of our own historians cavil about the elevation of the Isle of Thanet, and thus confirm in a great measure oral tradition. Mr. Lewis writes "I differ from Baxter, the author of the Glossarium Antiquitatum Britannicum, where the learned author names the island thus:-"Pro-Tamatide Sue Taniatides, deberet esse Tanatines, Vel Tanch Inis, quod est Infera Insula." (The Inferior or Low Island). "On the contrary, adds Mr. Lewis," our old historians call it, Ruochim Inis, or the Richboro' Island; and assures us that this was the name given it by the Britons: Ninius calleth it Taneth. But why should the Britons call this island the Low Island, when it is well known to be high land, and that its cliffs are visible to our neighbours on the opposite side of the channel. Mr. Lewis forms a very natural conclusion here, for Thanet never could have been named Infera Insula, or Low Island; but it increases the probability that it was called Teneth: Teneth, from the fire beacons then said to exist upon its hills, while the Infera Insula, or Low Island, was the Godwin's Isle so described by Camden and others. The Isle was fruitful, and had good pastures situated lower than Thanet, from which there was a passage for about three or four miles by boat. Again, "without the mouth of the Thames eastward before the Isle of Thanet, lies a long shelf of quick sands, where in the year 1097 an island belonging to Earl Godwin was swallowed up, according to our annals."

Some of the early writers in describing our coast, mention two distinct islands near, or forming the mouth of the Portus Rutupium, and Cæsar

himself describes the place of his anchorage as embayed, and distinctly states that his galleys rowed into an estuary, where they made good their landing, and afterwards entrenched themselves by constructing the Urbs Rutupia. or Richborough. Now, had the Godwin Sands been under water, and the sea laving along the shore of Richborough, it must have been an open road without any shelter, and if he rowed into an estuary, he must have gone some miles beyond that point; but historians whose writings mention the existence of Tanatos, or Low Island, could not allude to Thanet, which is surrounded by chalky cliffs of consider. able altitude. The Low Island must have been the estate, afterwards Earl Godwin's domains, and now the Godwin Sands; and that many other islands of this kind existed in the Northern Ocean, we have the testimony of most respectable writers. Marcus Flaminius, when por traying disasters which befel the fleet of Germanicus, after leaving the river Amicia, on the Bremen Coast, thus expresses himself: "A wide and unknown sea was before us; around were hostile shores, or uninhabited islands, &c." There are no islands but the solitary rock of Helegaland, at present in the North Sea upon that coast; but the Belgic traditions speak of a cluster of islands which were inhabited, and that a terrible inundation of the sea destroyed them, together with several others upon the coast of Britain, and that some thousands of the miserable natives were succoured by Edward the Confessor, and colonized in Britain. As to the sea receding from our coast because it encroached upon theirs, it is a ridiculous and confined idea.

Farl Godwin, it appears, was a sea-king, and a desperate warrior; and the number of depredations laid to his charge, has led some to suppose that there were two or more earls of that name in successive generations. The palace of the King of Kent was burnt down by Earl Godwin in his attack upon the town of Milton, in the reign of Edward the Confessor; and we also find an Earl Godwin, with his son, attacking Hythe, in the reign of Henry II., and carrying away and destroying all the vessels lying in the roads. This could not be the same personage who so treacherously occasioned the murder of Alfred, brother of Edward the Confessor, and of whose tragical end, while feasting at that monarch's table, history has given so interesting an account. We find that the first earl mentioned retired into Denmark, to mature his plans, when in difficulties: hence it may be presumed the herald is correct in denying his ignoble extraction; and that the Earl Godwins were a race of piratical and powerful chieftains, to appease and conciliate whom the Saxon kings granted lands, and bestowed appointments of trust and confidence. They had always great power and influence at sea. The tower in Dover Castle, built by one of them who was guardian of the ports, still retains his name; but that he, or any of his family, should have a sand in perpetuity is not probable. No honour or emolument could have been derived from such a circumstance.

History being so vague and unsatisfactory on this subject, no reliance can be placed upon it, some ascribing the changes which took place upon our coast to Edward's reign, a few years previous to the Norman

be

conquest, and others declaring that it was during the life of William Rufus, the second king of the Norman line: both accounts may partially correct; the island might have been rendered untenable in the first instance, and totally destroyed in the second.

An old, and very curious tradition, has been handed down through successive generations, and is often repeated as a tale to puzzle, and fill the minds of children and peasants with conjectures, namely:-That the erection of Tenterden church was the cause of the destruction of the Godwin Sands. The story is related in a variety of ways, but, treating it as a fable, the following is the favourite and most amusing legend:"Earl Godwin, in one of his predatory excursions, had penetrated into the weald of Kent, which was at that time a thinly inhabited and woody country. Here he was placed in great jeopardy by a superior force; and, lying in concealment, made a vow, that should he return in safety, he would erect a steeple at Tenterden, to the honour of the holy saints:that he being a vacillating believer, neglected to fulfil his vow, and that the vengeance of heaven was inflicted upon him for his sins, in the destruction of his sea-girt domains." Such was the monkish legend to the credulous and superstitious. Another version was of a impose upon very opposite tendency; that, "anxious to fulfil his sacred pledge, he neglected the dams and sea-walls of his island, which thus, in an overwhelming tempest, fell an easy prey to the destroying elements.” Treating them both as matters of conjecture, still they prove that our ancestors believed that such an island had been in existence; and, as the former was the most amusing, I have rendered it into verse for the entertainment of my youthful friends, who may in mature age cultivate a fondness for intellectual pursuits, from an association of the ideas which interested them in their youth.

The sparkling mead, with riot crown'd,
Beams high in Godwin's Hall;
The ohieftain's lofty roofs resound
With triumph, shout, and brawl.

The hold sea-rovers, there reclin'd,
Their daring prowess boast,
Whose unfurl'd pennon to the wind
Oft awed the neighbouring coast.

And all was joy and revelrie
Around the feudal board.

When stranger sounds of minstrelsie

A silence deep restored.

Unseen the hands which touched the chord
By holy music fill'd,

Whose well known strains, to Godwin's lord,
His heart with horror thrill'd:

"Break we the feast!-my minstrel slain

In battle by my side;
Foul perjured vows awake the strain,
Which with him there had died."

The music ceased. the clan dispers'd,
Their several dwellings sought;
The chieftain's anxious mind rehears'd
That vow with horror fraught.

O'erwhelmed with grief, his couch he press'd,
His heart with anguish riven;

Deep wrongs to man had stain'd his breast,
His faith was broke with heaven.

Prophetic fears, and haggard sleep,
Around his pillow form

Such shades as rest beneath the deep,
Or rise upon the storm.

The tempest comes--its midnight roar
Fell on the warrior's ear,

The bursting surge assault the shore,
Strange voices ride the air.

As noises from some found'ring craft,
They sigh upon the gale;

But to Earl Godwin's soul is waft
Their melancholy hail.

"Rise, valiant Earl! whose daring arm
The power of man defied;
The northern spirits ride the storm!
Now be thy prowess tried!

Thy plighted faith to mortal man
Hath ofttimes been forsworn:
Now rise! the might of heaven to scan,
Despairing and forlorn.

Thy plighted faith at Tenterden,
Was not to Odin given;
When, ambush'd in the forest glen,
That vow arose to heaven.
Thou to a righteous God appealed,
And thy new faith was tried;
His mighty arm was there revealed-
Thy steel with crimson dyed.

When beaming in the doubtful fight
His angel-rescue came.

What was thy promise to his might?
What to enhance his fime?

In yon fair realm a beauteons spire
With pious zeal to raise,
And found, of holy mass, a choir,
Incessant to his praise.

In this sea-girt domain to place
His cross upon the strand,

That there thy vassals should embrace
His ever just command.

Thy heart, with pious fervour then
Invoked the awful form,

The dreaded scourge of faithless men,
The angel of the storm.

Behold, I come! the 'whelming seas

Beneath my footsteps roar;
Hark! fearful sound!--thy destiny's
No more! Fair 1sle, no more!

A dreadful shadow points thy doom,
Thy day of glory's past;

To wandering barks henceforth a tomb,
Where sailors shriek their last."

Amazed, Earl Godwin starts from sleep,
While horrors round him close;

Too true the visions of the deep
Which broke on his repose.

Haste! Man the barks! The tocsin ring!
A deluge pours around;

The billows o'er the remparts spring,

And burst above the mound.

Hoarse shouts are heard along the strand—
Launch --Launch! The storm-sail try!
Resistless seas invade the land!

Haste! to the vessels fly!

Swift to the island's leeward side,
Borne by his vassal band,

Earl Godwin launches o'er the tide,
And quits his father's land.

Amazed he sees, through shades of night,

His ruined castle fall;

And, when the morn revealed the light.
No trace of bulwark'd wall.

Too late, He cries! my broken vows
The ruined fields deform;

No more shall rovers there carouse,
And shelter from the storm.

On Stour's fair banks, retired he dwelt,
And found a refuge there;
And daily with contrition knelt
In penitence and prayer.

Then let our children's children learn
A Holy God to fear

Whose jealous ire will ever burn
If vows are not sincere!

God of the Saxons.

EXTRACTS FROM NOTES AS TO A LIGHTHOUSE IN THE SKERKI CHANNEL*.-By Alexander Gordon, M. Inst. C.E.)

(Keith's Reef long. 10° 56' 24" E., lat. 37° 48′ 45′′ N.) ADMIRAL Sir Francis Beaufort suggested to me the importance of a light-house in the Skerki Channel, for Keith's Reef; and having furnished me with all the information possessed by the Hydrographical Department, and enabled me to ascertain from Capt. W. H. Smyth, R.N., Capt. Sir E. Belcher, R.N., Capt. W. B. Monypenny, R.N., and Mr. G. Biddlecombe, R. N., their personal experience of Keith's Reef, I am now able to assert confidently, that a light-house can be erected on Keith's Reef, showing a light of the greatest power 100 feet or more above the sea, capable of containing stores, provisions, and water for four men, or even more for six months, and at an expense not exceeding £17,000.

A light-ship upon the Skerki Shoals has often been proposed, as there is bad holding ground on Keith's Reef, but the distance of these shoals from Keith's Reef, would render such a light-ship of little use, and the maintenance of a light-ship in such a situation, would be three times

*The original paper on this important subject is illustrated by several drawings. We can only find room for one of the drawings.-Ed., N.M.