The "Submarine Forest"
and Hastings, which have now vanished. These points need critical examination, and the " Eastward Drift " has an important bearing upon all of them.
No means are available for ascertaining the exact line of the coast in early times ; but at Hastings it has been proved beyond doubt that the forest which is now called the " Submarine Forest " formerly grew upon the site of the pierhead at White Rock[1]. The line of the forest-growth has been traced at low tide at various intervals along the shore, at Warrior Square, St. Leonards, Bulverhithe, and Pevensey, and eastwards as far as the landing-place near the Queen's Hotel. It does not appear again until the levels at Pett are reached. The reason for this interruption doubtless is that, although the forest-growth formerly extended over the hills[2], no deposit would remain upon the shore when these higher lands were washed away by the sea. The old harbours of Pevensey, Bulverhithe, and Hastings were all situated on the eastern sides of promontories, namely, Langley Point, Bulverhithe Point, and the White Rock respectively ; and each was scoured by its river - the Ashburne, the Asten, and the Old Roar. So long as the promontory formed the natural groin arresting the flow of beach from the west, the harbour on the eastern side of it would remain open, scoured by its river, and by the flow and ebb of the tides, as well as by the occasional eastern storm-tides. But so soon as the angle on the western side of the promontory had been filled up with beach, the surplus beach, unless arrested by some natural or artificial means, would drift round the point, and commence filling up the embayed portions beyond, damming back the rmiovuetrh.with " fulls " of beach, and thus causing an accumulation of silt at its mouth.
In the absence of any detailed record, it is impossible to give a precise description of the appearance of Hastings in early and mediaeval times, since all its characteristic features would largely depend upon the length of the projections known as the White Rock and the Castle Cliff, as compared with the adjacent land. Nor can any reliable judgment be formed as to the position of the shingle with respect to these headlands, nor of the artificial moles and other works which may have been constructed (as in Romney Marsh) to strengthen and maintain the accumulation of beach on the western side of the harbour-mouth. If, however, we infer, from indications such as the situation of the remains of the submerged forest-bed, that when this " Cinque Port " was in its zenith of prosperity both the Castle Hill and the White Rock promontories projected some considerable distance into the sea, the latter probably as far as the modern pier-head, we shall perhaps not be very far wrong. From the last-named point, in later days, a spit or bar of shingle probably extended in an easterly direction, terminating along the adjacent ledge of rocks, opposite Carlisle Parade, where the western shore of the harbour- mouth was then probably situated. The Castle Hill, although projecting much more than it does now, sloped somewhat rapidly away southwards to a far lower level than that of the portion still standing. It probably formed the eastern and shorter wing of the old harbour, the estuary having a semicircular trend to the east. The whole space between White Rock on the west, as far as the Castle Cliff on the east, and Wellington Place on the north, is filled up with a mass of shingle, upon which the houses and streets are now built. The tract of land opposite Carlisle Parade,
- ↑ The trunk of a fine oak was discovered when the piles of the pierhead opposite White Rock were driven in . It is now preserved in the Alexandra Park.
- ↑ See description of the Castle earthworks, postea
