Another storm, 11th of August, 1705, did equal damage. The Burrell MSS. record, Jan., 1748–9, that by reason of extraordinary high tides the sea broke in at Brighthelmston, washed away part of the Block-house, and the farm lands called Salts, and did considerable damage to the lands adjacent. On digging out the shingle for the purpose of laying in the foundation of the wall which forms the south boundary of the King’s Road, the ruins of the Block-house were discovered in so compact and firm a state that much difficulty was experienced in excavating them and breaking them up. Less than ninety years since at low water, the well of the old town was visible off the Old Ship Tavern, its steined form standing somewhat high above the sand and shingle. Lord Macaulay, in his history of England, speaking of the time of Charles II., says:—“Brighton was then described as a place which had once been thriving, which had possessed many small fishing barks, and which had, when at the height of prosperity, contained about two thousand inhabitants; but which was sinking fast into decay. The sea was gradually gaining on the buildings, which at length almost entirely disappeared. Ninety years ago the ruins of an old fort were to be seen lying among the pebbles and sea-weed on the beach, and ancient men could still point out the traces of foundations on a spot where a street of more than a hundred huts had been swallowed up by the waves. So desolate was the place after this calamity that the vicarage was thought scarcely worth having. A few poor fishermen, however, still continued to dry their nets on those cliffs, on which now a town, twice as large and populous as the Bristol of the Stuarts, presents, mile after mile, its gay and fantastic front to the sea.” The Rev. William Gilpin, prebendary of Salisbury, and vicar of Boldre, near Lymington, in “Observations on the Coasts of Hampshire, Sussex, and Kent, made in the Summer of 1774,” states:—“The cliff on which Brighthelmston stands, is composed of a mouldering clay; and the sea has gained upon it, at least fifty yards in the memory of man. A fort which stood on the edge of the cliff, gave way in the year 1761, and was shattered into a ruin; but it is now taken entirely down.” This, probably, refers to some portion of the old fortifications of the town, which stood to the east of the Block-house.