Decay of the Harbours
chiefly by the force of the eastern reflux and storm-tides, assisted by subaerial denudation. Many headlands on the south-eastern coast of England must have suffered this cutting away of their unprotected sides. The result would be that the accumulation of sea-beach on the western side of Beachy Head would commence to pour round the promontory, until no appreciable quantity of beach could be detained there. The author is disposed to think, though with all due reserve, that the beginning of the failure of Beachy Head, and other intervening headlands to retain the huge masses of accumulated beach on the western side is coaeval with the commencement of the decay of the Cinque Port of Hastings and its fellows.
Johannes Norden's map of 1610 shows a large increase of beach collected at Langley Point, and this accumulation no doubt afterwards led to the utter decay of the port of Pevensey. In this map also we see a long stretch of shingle along the shore, damming back the stream which flows from the west of Bexhill, and creating a pear-shaped lake or lagoon known as the " Pell." On reference to the maps of Speed and his copyists, of 1610, we find that the " Pell " has become an open lagoon or inlet, by the removal of the mass of beach in front of it, and that the Island has now for the first time appeared to the east of it. The author's theory therefore is, that the nucleus of this island may have been derived from the displacement of beach by some enormous tidal scour, which may well have taken place between the drafting of the two maps. Perhaps so soon as a substantial nucleus had been formed off the coast of Bulverhithe, at St. Leonards, the passage of the beach from west to east was obstructed, and the shingle gradually accumulated against the obstruction to the westward, in the form of a long bank. It is possible that this shingle-island may have endured till the next century, when it may have finally disappeared by the action of the forces above described.
Prof. Airey has written an extremely interesting paper on Julius Caesar's invasion, in which he endeavours to prove that the landing took place at Pevensey Bay. But as the whole argument is founded on the action of the tidal currents of the present day, regardless of the alterations which we know to have been brought about by the denudation of the coast on both sides of the English Channel, by which the Channel has been greatly widened, the writer considers that such deductions are of too speculative a character to receive serious attention.
PREHISTORIC REMAINS
Before noticing later antiquities found at Hastings and in the immediate vicinity, it is proper to mention certain prehistoric remains which have been discovered.
The Wealden rocks, upon which Hastings stands, are, in common with the greater part of the Wealden area, rarely overlain by the more recent deposits in which the remains of the older flint-age may be expected to occur. However, a very considerable number of worked flints, belonging to the later or Neolithic stone-age, have been discovered at and near Hastings, either upon the surface or a few inches below it. These specimens have occurred mostly, if not exclusively, upon the higher levels of the district.
