dred houses were standing in
the parish of St. Martin. St. Peter's parish was devastated and
depopulated. It had a small round church, like that at Cambridge,
called the Temple, once the property of the Knights Templars, richly
endowed with costly gifts. This was a place of sanctuary, as were the
other churches in the city. With the destruction of the houses came
also the decay of the port which no ships could enter. Its rival,
Southwold, attracted the vessels of strangers. The markets and fairs
were deserted. Silence and ruin reigned over the doomed town, and the
ruined church of All Saints is all that remains of its former glories,
save what the storms sometimes toss along the beach for the study and
edification of antiquaries.

As we proceed down the coast we find that the sea is still gaining on
the land. The old church at Walton-on-the-Naze was swept away, and is
replaced by a new one. A flourishing town existed at Reculver, which
dates back to the Romans. It was a prosperous place, and had a noble
church, which in the sixteenth century was a mile from the sea.
Steadily have the waves advanced, until a century ago the church fell
into the sea, save two towers which have been preserved by means of
elaborate sea-walls as a landmark for sailors.

The fickle sea has deserted some towns and destroyed their prosperity;
it has receded all along the coast from Folkestone to the Sussex
border, and left some of the famous Cinque Ports, some of which we
shall visit again, Lymne, Romney, Hythe, Richborough, Stonor,
Sandwich, and Sarre high and dry, with little or no access to the sea.
Winchelsea has had a strange career. The old town lies beneath the
waves, but a new Winchelsea arose, once a flourishing port, but now
deserted and forlorn with the sea a mile away. Rye, too, has been
forsaken. It was once an island; now the little Rother stream conveys
small vessels to the sea, which looks very far away.

We cannot follow all the victories of the sea. We might examine the
inroads made by the waves at Selsea. There stood the first cathedral
of the district before Chichester was founded. The building is now
beneath the sea, and since Saxon times half of the Selsea Bill has
vanished. The village of Selsea rested securely in the centre of the
peninsula, but only half a mile now separates it from the sea. Some
land has been gained near this projecting headland by an industrious
farmer. His farm surrounded a large cove with a narro