The Ancient Rows of Great Yarmouth / Their names, why so constructed, and what visitors have written about them, also a descriptive sketch of Yarmouth Beach

Transcribed from the 1897 Edward J. Lupson edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org, using scans from the British Library.
WRITTEN FOR VISITORS.
Their Names. Why so Constructed, AND What Visitors have written about them, ALSO A DESCRIPTIVE SKETCH OF
YARMOUTH BEACH .
“And the Rows! them long bars of the gridiron, That Dickens hev wrote on—so quare; Them ere Rows are a great institution, In the town at the mouth of the Yare.”
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Illustrated : PRICE TWOPENCE .
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Yarmouth : Edward J. Lupson, Church Plain.
ENTERED AT STATIONERS’ HALL.
It seems the most reasonable supposition that the Rows were constructed as we see them, in order that as large a population as possible might be concentrated within the narrowest limits, to make the work of fortifying the town as easy a matter as possible, and give, at the same time, greater security to the whole.
It has been sagely remarked by a reflective writer that the Rows “seem to have been so constructed, that in the event of an unusually high tide, the water might flow through them.” And in like manner observes another, “if the water swept over on one side, it would make its escape at the other as if through a grating.” Had such a contingency been in contemplation, surely a greater breadth would have been given to allow the water a freer flow.