On the east coast of England there is a small hamlet surrounded by high sandhills with scarcely a blade of grass or even a low shrub to be seen in itsneighbourh... » 

On the east coast of England there is a small hamlet surrounded by high sandhills with scarcely a blade of grass or even a low shrub to be seen in itsneighbourhood. The only vegetable productions indeed which can flourish inthat light soil are the pale green rushes whose roots serve to bind the sandtogether and to prevent the high easterly winds so constantly blowing on thatcoast affecting it as much as they would otherwise do. Even in spite of theopposition of the rushes several deserted huts have been almost entirelycovered up by the drifting sand. See Note 1. The population of the villageconsists of seafaring people and their families. The men form the crews of thenumerous vessels employed in the herring fisheries which belong to the variousfishingplaces on the coast. Nowhere along the shores of England are finer seaboats or more hardy crews to be found. «