From all these circumstances we may form this general observation, that whenever the sea obtrudes upon the coast near Lowestoft, it retires from the intermediate parts or coast to the north of it; and when it recedes at Lowestoft, it gains upon the more northern part. Being almost destitute of express records (the greater part of them being destroyed by fire in the year 1606) relative to the town of Lowestoft, it is chiefly from selecting circumstances which we find interspersed in history, that we are able to form any conjectures respecting its origin. The principal evidence which now remains respecting the antiquity of Lowestoft, is that of “The Narrative of the Proceedings between Yarmouth and Lowestoft during the contest respecting the Herring Fishery”, {24} wherein it appears that Lowestoft is a more ancient town than Yarmouth. But notwithstanding the proof which arises from this evidence, it may be necessary for us to guard ourselves against an error which otherwise might mislead us, concerning the origin of Yarmouth; and, therefore, it may be proper to extend our enquiries to this circumstance, and to endeavour to place it in a true point of light. What endangers our mistake respecting Yarmouth, is as follows:—In the tables of records, hanging in the common hall of Yarmouth, it is expressed that in the days of Canutus there was a sand in the sea, which began to be dry land from Anno 1040 to 1090. And in a manuscript book, containing the originality or antiquity of Yarmouth, it is asserted, that in Edward the Confessor’s time, the same sand began to appear at low water; and that in the days of King Harold and William the Conqueror the same grew so dry, and not overflown, that they then began to build tents, and fishermen did then begin to repair thither, about killing of herrings. These records—for want of better, which have since been published—have embarrassed the world with difficulties, and involved them in error; and the more so, as these records have been regarded as authentic: but if we compare them with those which are known to be genuine, we may easily detect the imposition, and prove them to be erroneous. It plainly appears, from what has been already observed, that the sand on which Yarmouth was founded was dry in the year 495, when Cerdick the Saxon first landed there; and that shortly after, Yarmouth began to be erected by the Saxons, first on a sand a little to the west of that whereon it now stands, and then shortly after, the inhabitants removed to this latter or Cerdick Sand, upon account of the unhealthy situation of the former. And it is also further recorded that in the time of Edward the Confessor, Yarmouth was become so opulent, that there flourished in it seventy burgesses. From hence it is evident that the former account above mentioned, concerning Yarmouth being founded about the year 1040, is evidently an error; and, consequently, to date the origin of Lowestoft