Pegwell Bay

As I intended to devote a portion of the day to a visit to the ruins of Richborough, I made no longer stay in the town, however, than was required for drinking a glass of ale and walking through the irregular streets in the direction of the road leading to Canterbury.

I had been desirous to explore these ruins on a former occasion when I had walked from Ramsgate to Deal, but, though visible from the road, they cannot be reached from it without a boat, owing to the intervention of the Stour, which flows in such a remarkable curve as to convert into a peninsula the tract intersected by the road between Sandwich and the original haven, where the river flows into Pegwell Bay.

Just out of the town, on the road to Canterbury, there is a lane on the right which, passing under the railway from Minster Junction to Sandwich and Deal, enables the ruins to be reached on their western side and then intersects the marshes bordering the river.

Though the lowness of the remaining portion of the wall overlooking the Stour causes these ruins to appear almost too inconsiderable for notice, they have a peculiar interest for students of history and persons archaeologically disposed, as the most ancient remains of the kind in the kingdom.

Looking seaward, I was surprised by the sight of a small steamer, apparently paddling over the marshes, the river not being visible, and its eccentric windings causing the vessel to appear where the presence of deep water would otherwise have been unsuspected.

The steamer, as I afterwards learned, belonged to the owners of some neighboring salt works.

That these flats were once covered by the sea is evident from the great difference of depth between the channel made by the current of the star and the adjoining waters of Pegwell Bay.

The former being the arm of the sea which formerly separated Thanet from the mainland and into which the Stour then flowed at Stourmouth.