upward and downward movements have affected our island since the general
coast-line had nearly acquired its present shape, we must hesitate
before we attribute any given change to a single cause, such as the
local encroachment of the sea upon low land.

On the coast of Fife, at St. Andrew's, a tract of land, said to have
intervened between the castle of Cardinal Beaton and the sea, has been
entirely swept away, as were the last remains of the Priory of Crail, in
the same county, in 1803. On both sides of the Frith of Forth, land has
been consumed; at North Berwick in particular, and at Newhaven, where an
arsenal and dock, built in the reign of James IV., in the fifteenth
century, has been overflowed.

_East coast of England._--If we now proceed to the English coast, we
find records of numerous lands having been destroyed in Northumberland,
as those near Bamborough and Holy Island, and at Tynemouth Castle, which
now overhangs the sea, although formerly separated from it by a strip of
land. At Hartlepool, and several other parts of the coast of Durham
composed of magnesian limestone, the sea has made considerable inroads.

_Coast of Yorkshire._--Almost the whole coast of Yorkshire, from the
mouth of the Tees to that of the Humber, is in a state of gradual
dilapidation. That part of the cliffs which consist of lias, the oolite
series, and chalk, decays slowly. They present abrupt and naked
precipices, often 300 feet in height; and it is only at a few points
that the grassy covering of the sloping talus marks a temporary
relaxation of the erosive action of the sea. The chalk cliffs are worn
into caves and needles in the projecting headland of Flamborough, where
they are decomposed by the salt spray, and slowly crumble away. But the
waste is most rapid between that promontory and Spurn Point, or the
coast of Holderness, as it is called, a tract consisting of beds of
clay, gravel, sand, and chalk rubble. The irregular intermixture of the
argillaceous beds causes many springs to be thrown out, and this
facilitates the undermining process, the waves beating against them, and
a strong current setting chiefly from the north. The wasteful action is
very conspicuous at Dimlington Height, the loftiest point in Holderness,
where the beacon stands on a cliff 146 feet above high water, the whole
being composed of clay, with pebbles scattered through it.[399] "For
many years," says Professor Phillips, "the rate at which the cliffs
re