he storm on the
opposite side of the bar. At the same time many acres of pasture land
were covered by shingle, on the farm of Westover, near Lymington. But
the bar was soon restored in its old position by pebbles drifted from
the west; and it appears from ancient maps that it has preserved the
same general outline and position for centuries.[427]

Mr. Austen remarks that, as a general rule, it is only when high tides
concur with a gale of wind, that the sea reaches the base of cliffs so
as to undermine them and throw down earth and stone. But the waves are
perpetually employed in abrading and fashioning the materials already
strewed over the beach. Much of the gravel and shingle is always
travelling up and down, between high-water mark and a slight depth below
the level of the lowest tides, and occasionally the materials are swept
away and carried into deeper water. Owing to these movements every
portion of our southern coast may be seen at one time or other in the
condition of bare rock. Yet other beds of sand and shingle soon collect,
and, although composed of new materials, invariably exhibit on the same
spots precisely similar characters.[428]

The cliffs between Hurst Shingle Bar and Christchurch are undermined
continually, the sea having often encroached for a series of years at
the rate of a yard annually. Within the memory of persons now living, it
has been necessary thrice to remove the coast-road farther inland. The
tradition, therefore, is probably true, that the church of Hordwell was
once in the middle of that parish, although now (1830) very near the
sea. The promontory of Christchurch Head gives way slowly. It is the
only point between Lymington and Poole Harbor, in Dorsetshire, where any
hard stony masses occur in the cliffs. Five layers of large ferruginous
concretions, somewhat like the septaria of the London clay, have
occasioned a resistance at this point, to which we may ascribe this
headland. In the mean time, the waves have cut deeply into the soft
sands and loam of Poole Bay; and, after severe frosts, great landslips
take place, which by degrees become enlarged into narrow ravines, or
chines, as they are called, with vertical sides. One of these chines,
near Boscomb, has been deepened twenty feet within a few years. At the
head of each there is a spring, the waters of which have been chiefly
instrumental in producing these narrow excavations, which are sometimes
from 100 to 150 feet deep.

_Is