ntirely of this dredging. The
company had to pay heavily, and the royalties were returned to them.
This is only one instance out of many which might be quoted. We are an
illogical nation, and our regulations and authorities are weirdly
confused. It appears that the foreshore is under the control of the
Board of Trade, and then a narrow strip of land is ruled over by the
Commissioners of Woods and Forests. Of course these bodies do not
agree; different policies are pursued by each, and the coast suffers.
Large sums are sometimes spent in coast-defence works. At Spurn no
less than L37,433 has been spent out of Parliamentary grants, besides
L14,227 out of the Mercantile Marine Fund. Corporations or county
authorities, finding their coasts being worn away, resolve to protect
it. They obtain a grant in aid from Parliament, spend vast sums, and
often find their work entirely thrown away, or proving itself most
disastrous to their neighbours. If you protect one part of the coast
you destroy another. Such is the rule of the sea. If you try to beat
it back at one point it will revenge itself on another. If only you
can cause shingle to accumulate before your threatened town or
homestead, you know you can make the place safe and secure from the
waves. But if you stop this flow of shingle you may protect your own
homes, but you deprive your neighbours of this safeguard against the
ravages of the sea. It was so at Deal. The good folks of Deal placed
groynes in order to stop the flow of shingle and protect the town.
They did their duty well; they stopped the shingle and made a good
bulwark against the sea. With what result? In a few years' time they
caused the destruction of Sandown, which had been deprived of its
natural protection. Mr. W. Whitaker, F.R.S., who has walked along the
whole coast from Norfolk to Cornwall, besides visiting other parts of
our English shore, and whose contributions to the Report of the Royal
Commission on Coast Erosion are so valuable, remembers when a boy the
Castle of Sandown, which dated from the time of Henry VIII. It was
then in a sound condition and was inhabited. Now it is destroyed, and
the batteries farther north have gone too. The same thing is going on
at Dover. The Admiralty Pier causes the accumulation of shingle on its
west side, and prevents it from following its natural course in a
north-easterly direction. Hence the base of the cliffs on the other
side of the pier and harbour is left bare