Star.
London, England, 1825-11-14 00:00:00

THE GOODWIN SANDS.

The Goodwin Sands, which have again excited such
fatal interest, and which have so often caused the de.
struction of our ships, and their ill-fated crews, ale very
remarkable banks, situated between the Nos th and
South Forelands, opposite Deal and Ram,gate, and
about seven or eight miles from the coast. The length
of the sand is about ten miles, and the breadth nearly
two, and consists of a more soft, fluid, porous, spongious,
but withal, tenacious matter, than the neighbouring
sands, and consequently of such a quality, that when a
ship strikes upon it, there is little chance of her getting
off, the niture of the sand being such as to swallow the
vessel up sometimes in a few hours, while the surf
which breaks upon them renders all attempts to ap-
proach the ill-fated vessel impossible. We have often,
when some miles inland, seen the waves breaking over
the sands with fearful violence, and plainly discernible,
although at a distance of ten or twelve miles. This will
enable our readers to form some idea of the tremendous
waves which, with a west wind (the worst that ern
blow at that spot), hurried the Ogle Castle to de•
struction, an 1 her despairing crew to a melanch, ly
death, when almost within sight of their destine I po• t.
%Wen the water is off these sands, they become exceed-
ingly hard and firm, so that peop'e may land, and aiy
for hours upon them in summer t—ineeed cricket
matches have been played upon them, but wee to
those who do not quit at the prnpe- moment, for in a
very shot t time they become a quicksand, and float to
and fro with the waves, and when they retire again,
settle as before. When the Trinity House s-me year,
since formed a deign to erect a light-house upon them,
the engine-rs employed penetrated.to a great depthl
with their boring augurs, but they could reach no solid
bottom, as the spongy materi rls reacted to su It a
depth as to render the design utterly impracticable, and
a floating light was in consequence established. Oa the
26th of Nosember, 1702, a most dreadful storm arose
from the W.S.W. and blew for many hours with great
violence, during which thirteen men of war drove from
their anchorage in the Downs, ran upon ;he fatal Good.
wins,and were totally los.,with nearly all their crews,only
71 being saved. Concerning the origin of these sands,
there are various opinions, but the common received story
of their having once been the estate of Godwyne, Earl
of Kent, the father of Harold, who fell at 1-lastings, is
now exploded, as well as their having once teen an
island called Lomea, said to have Inc) destroyed by the
si-a in the year 1097, the most probable opinion of our
best antiquaries being, that instead of these sands being
occasioned by an inundation of the sea, they were
canted by the sea's leaving them, at the time of th
terrible inundation in the reign of King William Rufus,
or Henry the First's reign, which drowned large a
p itt of Flanders and the Low Coantr e.. This deser-
tion of the sea in dies.. pats ini;4lit hive been further
increased by the following inundations in other tilace,
especially upon the parts or Zeal.ind which anciently
coati :ted r I fitte, n i,lands, eight of which wine swal-
lowed up in. Henry the Seconu's time.

BATAVIA, JUNE 14.—1 n the night of the 10th inst.,
the English brig Horatio, lying in t!le toads, and destl
tiLed for Beaconlen, took tire and blew up, the efir
having communicated to a quantity t,f gunpowder on
board. The wreck is already sunk ; ten or twelve of
the crew lost their lives by this accident, but by the
speedy aid afforded by the boats of the gnardship, a
part of the crew was saved. Mr. OAKLEY, the super-
cargo, happened to be on sho;e. The cause of he
misfortune is not known.

The 25th of October the King and Queen of Swe-
DEN retained to Stockholm, from their jou: ney to Nor-
way. Tile CROWN PROCE and PRINCESS went to
Vesteras to meet them. The KING inlmediately re-
ceived the Members of the Council of State, and the'
first Civil and Military Authorities of the capital, and
dissolved the Regency appointed during h s absence.
Saturday afternoon, as a respectable elderly Lady, of
the name of BARKER, residing in Fann-stre,t, Alders.
gate-street, was proceeding along Cheapside, she was
pushed down by a crowd of persons coming past at the
tim when two well-dressed fellows immediately ren-
dered their assistance to help her to rise, and in doing
so robbed her of a very valuable watch and appendages,
and made off.

Thursday night, some thieves broke into the ware-
house of Mr. LINNIT, a goldsmith ani jeweller, in
Cursitor-street, Chancery-lane, and carried off a quan-
tity of valuable property.
Sever*l convictions have taken place at Trowbridge,
on informations against individuals paying their ser-
vant: wages in goods, instead of money.