It is very evident, to an attentive observer, that the whole of the flat country, which lies between Caister and Burgh, extending about four miles, and forms a considerable part of the water called Braydon, was once covered by the German Ocean; and that the mouth of the Yare, at that time, was an estuary, or arm of the sea, and extended, with considerable magnitude, for many miles up the country. Tradition, the faithful preserver of many a fact which history has overlooked or forgotten, confidently and invariably asserts it; and the present appearance of the ancient bed of the river, from Yarmouth to Harleston, in Norfolk, tends to confirm it. Probably the points of land whereon Beccles, Bungay, and Homersfield are situated, and which protruded themselves into the ancient river, might serve as convenient situations for placing beacons and other signals, announcing the approach of an enemy, at the time when the Romans, Saxons, and Danes invaded and gained possession of the island; and might, from thence give birth to the origin of those towns. The case may be the same in respect to other places situated on points of land on the borders both of the Yare and the Waveney. What is here suggested may receive farther confirmation from an inspection of the above ancient map of Garienis Oestium, or mouth of the Yare, as given in the Ives’s Garianonum, {14a} which represents this part of the country as it appeared in the year one thousand; and which, also, affords considerable assistance in forming a just conception of the ancient boundaries of these rivers, at the time when the Romans and other foreign invaders were in possession of this island. The mouth of the Waveney on the south of the island, was also at this time very large, and discharged itself into the ocean between Lowestoft and Kirkley. {14b} The conflux of waters arising from the communication which these two rivers had with the sea, the one at Yarmouth and the other at Lowestoft, was so great, when they formed a junction as to render the Waveney navigable some miles beyond Harleston in Norfolk. {14c} After that the sea had considerably receded from the river between Lowestoft and Kirkley, yet it still preserved a small communication with it; and therefore, whenever a violent storm arose from the north-west, at the time when the waters were increased by the spring tides, it would flow into the river with great violence, and threaten the adjacent country with an inundation. To guard against these irruptions of the ocean, and prevent the damages that would otherwise ensue, a break-water was erected between Lowestoft and Kirkley, as a security for the low grounds and marshes which laid contiguous to the river.