Note 2594 — THE CONFIGURATION OF THE COAST OF KENT IN THE TIME OF CAESAR

Proc. Geologists’ Association, viii, 1883, p. 93. Topley, indeed, frankly admits that one argument may be adduced in support of the theory that the Rother flowed out opposite Lympne. This argument is identical with that of Drew, which I have quoted in the text; but, as Topley’s exposition is the more lucid, I give it here. He observes (Mem. Geol. Survey,—The Geology of the Weald, pp. 303-4) that on Romney Marsh the shingle ‘has chiefly accumulated to the windward of tidal harbours, whilst the blown sand has accumulated to leeward of those harbours’; and then, remarking that, on the south of West Hythe, the ‘fulls’, or ridges of shingle, ‘curve well round to the north-west, as though to a harbour here,’ and that ‘on the north of this there is again a little blown-sand’, he admits that these facts lend some support to the popular view: but, he adds, ‘no trace of the ancient channel is to be found along the northern side of the marsh.’ But Topley seems not to know his own mind; for he afterwards says (ib., p. 304) that ‘it is by no means unlikely that the ancient Rother had more than one mouth. There may have been one at Lympne, one at Romney, and one near Rye.’ However, in his final utterance on the subject (Proc. Geologists’ Association, viii, 1883, p. 93) he says, ‘there is no evidence of any old river along the northern side of the Marsh.’