and stretchers. The wall is 22 feet high, 16 feet wide at the base, and 5 feet at the top. The face is curved to a radius of 17 feet. The coping is 13 feet above H.W.S.T.

In heavy gales the waves break with great force on this wall, the water being thrown over the top and falling on the roadway.

Soon after the completion of the wall the wave-action scoured away the beach, and within a year the shale in places was scooped out to a depth of 3 feet. An apron 15 feet wide and 3 feet 6

inches deep, with a toe 5 feet deep, was added in 1891. This apron consists of pitched stones on a layer of concrete.

The cost of the wall, exclusive of the apron, but inclusive of 115,770 cubic yards of filling at the back, was £18,777. The illustration is taken from a section supplied to the author by Mr. H. W. Smith, the borough engineer.

Westgate. For the protection of the chalk cliffs on the estate of the Bethlehem Hospital, a sea-wall 16 feet high has been constructed. The face is curved to a radius of 12 feet at the bottom and 20 feet at the top. The base of the wall was carried 2 feet below the hard chalk of which the beach consisted, the surface of which, at the foot of the wall, is 9 feet 6 inches above low water of spring tides, the rise of ordinary spring tides being 15 feet

6 inches, and reaching within 7 feet of the top of the wall. In two to three years after the construction of the wall it was found that, owing to wave-action, the chalk had been cut away, the foot of the wall undermined, and the chalk scoured out 9 inches.

In St. Mildred's Bay, at Westgate, the chalk cliffs were protected by a coating of concrete about 18 inches thick, made in a curved form. This wall is shown by the dotted line in the illustration. During a storm and high tide in the winter of 1897, the waves, striking the wall and being thrown upwards, fell on the roadway at the back and washed away the tar pavement, leaving the chalk filling at the back of the wall bare, and this was subsequently washed out

and the wall destroyed.

A new wall was subsequently constructed for the owners of the property. This wall is 10 feet high, 6 feet wide at the base, and 2 feet at the top, which is 7 feet 6 inches above H.W.O.S.T. The base is sunk into the chalk 4 feet below the level of the beach, which is here 13 feet above low water. The face is curved to a radius of 20 feet. This section of

the wall is shown by the thick lines on the illustration, for which the author is indebted to Messrs. McIntosh, Valon & Son, the engineers under whose direction the work was carried out.

Bognor.—A sea-wall and promenade about one mile in length has been constructed along the front of this town. The portion at the western end and that constructed in 1899, which were carried out under the direction of Mr. O. A. Brydges, the Surveyor to the Urban District Council, are made of concrete composed of shingle, sand, and Portland cement, in the proportion of 6 to 1. The wall is 13 feet high. The base is 5 feet 6 inches wide, and reaches 3 feet into the clay. Above this the face batters at the rate of 3 inches to the foot, the top being 3 feet wide and 4 feet above H.W.S.T. There are counterforts every 30 feet.

The face is composed of concrete blocks, 2 feet and 1 foot

6 inches by 1 foot 6 inches long and 1 foot deep, and having flints about 4 inches in diameter bedded in cement and sand in equal quantities. Each block has an angular slot left down both sides, which is filled with cement when the block is laid. The wall is 160 yards long, and cost £2300.

Clacton. The cliffs along this part of the coast consist of London clay with beds of gravel and flints. A considerable outlay has been incurred both at Clacton and Walton in protecting the cliffs by concrete and timber walls and by groynes.

In front of Clacton, a concrete wall about 2000 feet in length was constructed twenty years ago for the purpose of forming a promenade. This wall is 19 feet high from the base to the top,

clay; the base is 9 feet 6 inches wide, being sunk 7 feet 6 inches in the clay. There is a promenade 20 feet wide at the back of the wall, beyond which the cliff slopes upwards.

With ordinary spring tides the water does not reach the west end of the wall within 10 or 12 feet. The lower part of the face up to about 5 feet above O.H.W. has a straight batter of 1 to 1, and is pitched with Kentish rag stone; above this the wall is curved to a radius of 8 feet up to the top. The wall is made of concrete, the cement being in the proportion of 1 to 10 of the other material, in the lower part, and above the pitching 1 to 7. The outline section of this wall is shown in the illustration.

Three concrete groynes, 4 feet 6 inches high, were carried out to low water at right angles to the wall, with the object of preventing the denudation of the beach in front. It was, however, found that instead of effecting this purpose, the destructive effect of the waves breaking into the bays formed by these projections, and against the wall, had a very damaging effect on the beach, and caused considerable denudation. These concrete groynes have consequently been removed. The effect of the waves breaking on the wall still tends to cut away the beach from the front, the surface being much lower at the east than at the west end. The danger of the wall being overthrown was so great that a concrete apron had to be put down for its protection. At the west end of the wall a promenade pier, which runs out to sea, has acted as a groyne, and a large quantity of sand and shingle has accumulated, the beach being 5 feet higher at this than at the eastern end.

To the east of the concrete wall the cliffs were protected and a promenade formed by a timber sea-wall, which extends to the limits of the jurisdiction of the Sea Defence Commissioners, by whom it was constructed in 1889. This wall consisted of pitchpine piles 13 inches square, spaced 6 feet apart centre to centre, varying in length from 18 feet to 24 feet, and driven originally 12 feet into the London Clay, of which the substratum of the beach is composed; they were strutted seawards with 12 inches square timber placed at an angle of 45 degrees, the foot resting on a block of concrete, about 4 feet square, bedded in the clay. The sheet piles consisted of 6 inches pitchpine bolted to two 12-inch by 6-inch walings. After the construction of the wall, the waves breaking on it in high tides cut away the beach, removing not only the sand and shingle, but also the clay or "platimore," as it is locally termed, the surface being lowered 4 feet, thus considerably increasing the thrust on the wall. The struts which were placed in front of the piles were considered as contributing to the destructive effect of the waves.

During the north-easterly gales of the winter of 1896-7, owing to the denudation of the beach in front of the piles to the extent of 4 feet, and landslips of the cliffs at the back due to the saturation of the beds of sand and gravel by heavy rains, about 250 feet of this wall was overthrown. This breach was repaired, and the main piles tied with iron rods to piles driven on the land side. Although this walling had only been done about ten or twelve

years, the heads of some of the piles and the walings had already begun to show signs of decay.

A concrete wall about 1000 yards long has recently been constructed in the front of the timber structure. The cost of this wall, including £850 for forming the promenade, amounted to £19,200, for which the Local Government Board sanctioned a loan repayable in forty years.

The section of this new wall, as shown in the illustration, which also shows the timber wall at the back, varies a little from

the old one, the upper part having less curve, and basalt blocks 13 inches deep being substituted for Kentish rag stone.

This wall was carried out under the direction of Mr. T. H. Cressy, the Surveyor to the Clacton Sea Defence Commissioners, to whom the author is indebted for the drawings from which the illustrations have been taken.

On the western side of Clacton pier the cliffs are protected, so far as they extend, by a timber wall of similar construction to that which formerly protected the east end.

Bridlington. These sea-walls will be found described in Chapters IV. and VII.

Southend. The cliffs here consist of London clay, and are

Line of slope of cliff