PERIPATETIC LIGHTHOUSE.

New Zealand Mail, 29 January 1902, Page 17

PERIPATETIC LIGHTHOUSE.

haS a peri P atetic L'ghtinland Tf \, 07e 17 year c °mes further tobuild an aw 3 ’ thei ? forc > been decided anl tk ! i ? at a cost °f £6,000, with a Deal°finn aCt T h xr } ecn P lac ed East Kent t Wo' - In Nort l and Northon the mainKnd fantly encroaches towers of +l,7™?’ a ? d curious twin several miles at Heculvers, onco on th e f “ th °^ er - stand Point, on the ofl h8 i c ¥’ Du "geness . drift? of* V ° wing to lh ® fcot f ro ™ °f shingle, gains a few 6 Wyear i r ater3 i- 0 f Channel year. Tlie new lighthouse will bo

the third that has had to be constructed. The first was erected in the reign of James I.> by a goldsmith named Allen. Some seventy years ago it had retreated so far inshore that it was pulled down and a new one was built by Wyatt at the expense of the Earl of Leicester on the model of the famous Eddystone. In the last sixty years the second ligiithouse has receded about half a mile from tho coast, and although its fixed light is visible for fifteen miles, it is becoming a danger to shipping. Sandwich, in the same county, which in Queen Elizabeth’s day was a flourishing seaport, now lies hidden behind the sandhills about seven miles from the sea. Richborough Castle was also once on tl.e sea coast. It was a Roman fort, and oysters used to be grown beneath its walls. It now stands miles up the banks of the muddy and shallow Stour.