“The Goodwin sands, about five miles off the coast of Kent, were at one time a portion of the mainland itself and the property of Earl Goodwin. But the sea has swallowed them up. “The coast of Norfolk is minus three villages which it once possessed--Shipden, Eccles, and Wimpwell--all of which have been taken into the arms of the encroaching ocean. The Cromer of to-day stands miles inland of the original Cromer. “Auburn and Harlburn, two Yorkshire villages, once promised to develop into seaport towns of considerable importance; but, like the will of Canute, the will of the inhabitants of these villages was ignored by the rising sea, and Auburn and Harlburn now exist in mere names and sand-banks. “Dunwich, on the coast of Suffolk, is gradually being swallowed up. Every now and then the inhabitants move a distance inland, rebuild their houses and shops and wait patiently and philosophically for the next “notice to quit” from the sea. Many other seaside places have suffered or are suffering a similar fate. “It may be argued, on the other hand, that some seaside towns are gradually becoming inland towns by the failure of the sea to ‘come up to the mark,’ and running out only to run in for a shorter distance. Winchelsea, Sandwich, Rye, and Southport are all suffering in this way. Winchelsea and Rye were originally two of our cinque ports, but the sea has left them standing high and dry. Sandwich was once a highly important seaport town. It now stands two or three miles inland. “The sea is leaving Southport quite in the lurch--so much so indeed that the inhabitants have had to sink extensive lakes down on the beach to keep the sea from running off altogether and leaving merely an ordinary inland town. “But the extension of our island in this way is very much less than the encroachment of the sea at other points, and while our land is certainly becoming more extensive in one direction, it is contracting, and with much greater rapidity, in some other. And the ultimate effect may be that our mountain peaks may form small islands, and eventually be pointed out by posterity as ‘the position in which Great Britain is reputed to have stood.’”