HARVEST OF A HIGH TIDE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 330, 17 June 1911, Page 10

HARVEST OF A HIGH TIDE.

SAXOX HOLD AND SILVER WASHED VV. An extraordinary high tido wrought strange havoc on the Suffolk coast and brought to line new treasure. At Thorpness, Aldeburgh, a million tons of sand were washed away, and bungalows on the coast which days ago were 100 yards away from the sea are now within a few feet of high-water mark.

But the most curious fact was that hundreds of coins of gold, silver and bronze, and dating back in many cases to early Saxon times, were brought to light, also antique bronze rings and ornaments and an old bag clasp of bronze with si silver inscription, believed, on hasty inspection, to be of the age of King John. This coast is of the greatest antiquarian interest. Standing on it, according to local legend, the wayfarer at twilight can hear the bells of the submerged churches of Dunwich in the sea. Of this place, once a. populous seaport, little or nothing now remains. Tt is most like to Reculver, in Kent; as lonely and as rich in historic memories.

Here centuries ago were stationed Roman troops; here was a Saxon city ot great importance, Dummoceastre, and here about (130 A.D. Sigebreht, King of East Anglia. built himself a palace and erected a cathedral, which was consecrated by the Archbishop Honoring. It will be of singular interest if any of Sigebehrt's coins are among the find, as early East Anglian coins are very raTe. There were fifteen bishops of Dunwich before the see disappeared. At one time the city boasted six churches, in addition to convents, hospitals, and other public buildings. Step by step the sea encroached ami swallowed it up. Under Henry TT. its ships voyaged as far as Tceland. Tn the reign of Edward TTT. the old port was swept away with 400 houses. One by one five of its churches were undermined by the waves, and to-day only one remains, a melancholy ruin, with a fragment, of a monastery and the scanty remains of a leper hospital. Ships, harbor citv. all have crone: even the verv ruins have perished with the above exceptions. Rut on the shore still grows the "Dunwich rose," which by tradition was first brought to East Anglia by the monks 1400 years ago.