PART I. INTRODUCTION. (continued 4)

Section V.

Of the Animals, and particularly the Birds of this country.

Sir Thomas Browne seems to have placed the Spermaceti-Whale among the animals of Norfolk. One of them sixty two feet in length, was taken, as he says, near Wells. Another of the same kind, (he adds) about twenty years after, was caught at Hunstanton; and not far from thence, eight or nine were driven ashore, two of which were said to have young ones, after they had forsaken the water.

The Porpesse, the Dolphin, and the Grampus, are also, by the same writer, numbered among the Norfolk animals. The flesh of the two former, he represents as good food, especially that of the Dolphin, which when well-cooked, he says, is generally allowed to be a good dish. But it is very rarely that one meets with any that have tasted of it.

As to the Common Seal or Sea-Calf, being an amphibious creature, it is not so unnaturally classed among land animals. Numbers of them are often found sleeping on the shore and the sand-banks, below Lynn; while one, as is said, is keeping watch in the meantime, lest his companions be caught napping, and to apprise them of the approach of danger; in which case, they all instantly rush into the deep and disappear.

Otters also are not uncommon in this country. The young ones, says Sir T. Browne, are sometimes, preyed upon by buzzards, having occasionally been found in the nests of these birds. By many persons they are accounted no bad dish, as he says; and he adds, that Otters may be rendered perfectly tame, and in some houses have been known to serve the office of turnspits.

To the foregoing animals may be added Badgers, Hares, and Rabbits. The latter are here more numerous than in most other parts of the kingdom, and yet not so numerous it seems as they have been, owing to modern agricultural improvements. Hares are also in general pretty plentiful here in most places, and the game-laws very strictly enforced, as many a poacher knows to his cost.

The different Species of Birds found in this country, including the water-fowl, are very numerous. The following List includes the chief of them, and is taken mostly from Sir Thomas Browne’s Paper inserted in the 20th volume of the Monthly Magazine. 1. The Sea or Fen Eagle. Some of this species are said to be so large as to measure three yards and a quarter in the extent of their wings, and are capable of being perfectly tamed, and will feed on fish, red herrings, flesh, or any kind of offal. 2. The Osprey, which hovers about the fens, and will dip his claws into the water, and often take up a fish, and likewise catch Coots. It is sometime called the bald-buzzard. 3. The Kite. This species is said not to be very numerous. 4. The Merlin, or Hobby-bird: said to be subject to the vertigo, and sometimes caught in those fits. 5. The Woodchat, or bird-catcher; a small bird of prey about the size of a thrush. 6. The Raven. 7. The Rook. 8. The Jackdaw. 9. The Roller: a very uncommon bird. 10. The Cuckoo. 11, 12, 13, 14. The Green Woodpecker; The greater spotted Woodpecker; The Middle Spotted Woodpecker; and the Nuthatch. 15. The Kingfisher. 16. The Hoopoe, or Hoope-bird, so called from its note. 17, 18, 19. The Skylark, Woodlark, and Titlark. These are very common; but another, called the great crested lark, it seems, is not so. 20. The Stares, or Starlings, are in vast, and almost incredible numbers about the fens, where they roost at night, about the autumn on the reeds and alders, from whence they take their flight in the morning like thick clouds. The rooks, though very numerous in some parts of the kingdom, are never any where seen in such flocks as these birds are about the fens. 21. The Hawfinch. This bird is chiefly seen in summer, about cherry time; and is said to feed on the kernels of cherries and some other kinds of stone fruit; and by means of its amazingly strong bill it breaks the stone without much difficulty. 22. The Waxen Chatterer; which is said to be a very beautiful bird, but now a more uncommon bird than formerly. 23. The Crossbill; is migratory, and arrives about the beginning of Summer. 24. The Gold-finch, otherwise Fools-coat or Draw-water. 25. The Wheatear. These breed in rabbit burrows, and warrens are full of them from April to September. They are caught with a hobby and a net, and are accounted excellent eating. 26. The Goat-sucker, or Dorhawk, so called from the circumstance of its feeding on dors, or beetles. It breeds here and lays a very handsome spotted egg. [It flies about later than most other birds except the owl; and while perching in the evening on a tree, it makes a noise somewhat like the croaking of frogs, or rather the twirling of a spinning wheel, from which it has in some parts been called, The Spinner.] 27. The Bustard. A writer whose signature is X. P. S. in the 20th volume of the Monthly Magazine, says that “the bustards are at this time all extirpated out of Norfolk;” but he is certainly mistaken: they are still to be found in the open parts of the country, but not so frequently as formerly. They become more and more rare; and they will, perhaps, be soon extirpated; but it is not the case yet. The bustard is the largest of British birds, and is remarkable (says Sir Thomas Browne) for the strength of its breast-bone, and for its short heel. It lays two eggs which are much bigger than those of a turkey, as the bustard itself is also larger, as well as handsomer than that bird. It is accounted a dainty dish, and those who have eaten it, speak much in its praise. This famous bird seems incapable of being tamed or domesticated. [196] 28. and 29. Black and Red game, now unknown here. Some of the latter, or grouse, were found, it seems, about Lynn, in Sir Thomas Browne’s time. 30. 31. Partridge and Quail are here in great numbers. 32. The Corncrake, or Rayle is also commonly found here. 33. The Spoonbill, now but seldom found here, though formerly, it seems, pretty common. 34. The Crane, was formerly common here, but now scarcely deemed a British bird. 35. The White Stork, now rarely seen, though formerly not so uncommon a bird. 36. The Heron still abounds here. 37. The Bittern, or Bitour, is also very common: both this and the preceding are deemed good dishes. 38. The Godwit or Yarwhelp, is very common in Marshland, and deemed a dainty dish. It frequents the sea shore and salt marshes in winter, and the fens and interior parts in summer. 39. 40. The Redshank, and Curlew, are not unfrequent in the marshes and about the sea coast. 41. The Gnat or Knot. This is a small bird, but is at times very fat, and in much request for the table. They are caught with nets. 42. The Lapwing is common here on all the heaths, and in other parts. 43. The Ruff: so called from the feathers of the neck projecting like a ruff. This is a marsh bird, and varies greatly in its colours; no two of them are found alike. The female is smaller than the male, has no ruff about the neck, and is called a Reeve. It is very seldom seen. The males when put together will fight most bloodily and destroy each other. They lose their ruffs towards the end of autumn, or beginning of winter. They are very handsome birds. 44. The Dotterel, is a bird of passage; comes in September and March, and is accounted excellent eating. 45. King Dotterel, or Fen Dotterel: somewhat less, but better coloured than the former. 46. The Stone Curlew, is a tall handsome bird, remarkably eyed. It is said to be so common in this country, as to have the name of the Norfolk plover. 47. The Avoset, or skooping horn, is a tall, black and white bird, with a bill semicircularly bent upwards. It is a summer bird, and not unfrequent in Marshland. 48. The Oyster Catcher or Sea-pie. 49. The Common Coote. These birds are frequently observed in great flocks on broad waters, said to be remarkable for their dexterous-defence of themselves and young, against kites and buzzards. 50. 51. The Moor, or Water-hen, and Water-Raile. 52. The Wild Swan, or Elke. It is probable they come from great distances, for all the northern travellers are said to have observed them in the remotest parts. Like other northern birds, if the winter be mild they usually come no further south than Scotland, if very hard they proceed onward till they arrive in a country sufficiently warm. 53. 54. 55. Barnacle-goose, Brent-goose, and Sheldrake. The two former are common; and the latter pretty much so, especially about Norrold, where they are said to breed in rabbit-burrows. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. The Shoveler, Pintail, or Sea-pheasant, Garganey, or Teal, Wild-goose, and Gosander, or Mirganser, are all found in this country. 61. The Dun-diver, or Saw billed diver. It is bigger than a duck; and distinguished from other divers by a remarkable sawed bill to retain its slippery prey, which consists principally of eels. 62. The Snew, as well as the Widgeons, and other species of wild ducks, are very common. [199] 63. The Puffin, has a remarkable bill, which differs from that of a duck in being formed not horizontally but vertically, for the purpose of feeding in clefts of rocks, on shellfish, &c. 64. The Shear-water, somewhat billed like a cormorant, but much smaller, is a strong and fierce bird, that hovers about ships when the sailors cleanse their fish, &c. They will live some weeks without food. 65. The Gannet, is a large, white, strong billed bird: Sir Thomas Browne saw one of them in Marshland, which fought, and would not be forced to take wing. Another he saw taken alive, and for sometime kept and fed with herrings. 66. 67. The Shag and Cormorant, are generally confounded by the country people. The former builds upon trees, and the latter only in the rocks. 68. The Northern-Diver. 69. The Great Crested Grebe, appear about April, and breed on the broad waters. Their nest is formed of weed &c. and float on the water, so that their eggs are seldom dry while they are set on. 70. The little Grebe, small diver or Dabchick, is found in the rivers and broad waters here. 71. The Skua Gull, is sometimes found here in very hard winters. 72. The Herring Gull, is found here, but more commonly about Yarmouth. 73. The Black-headed Gull, is here very plentiful. The eggs are used by the country people in puddings, and otherwise. The birds are sometimes brought to the markets in great number, and even sent to London. 74. The Greater Fern, or Sea Swallow, is a neat white and fork-tailed bird, but much larger than a swallow. 75. The May Chitt, is a small dark-grey bird. It comes in great plenty into Marshland in May, and stays about a month, seldom beyond six weeks. It is fatter than most birds of its size, and accounted excellent eating. 76. The Churre, another small bird, is frequently taken among the preceding. 77. The Whinne bird, is marked with five yellow spots, and is less than a wren. 78. The Chipper. This somewhat resembles the former; comes here in the spring, and feeds on the first buddings of birches and other early trees.—To all these may be added, 79. The Nightingale, which is here a constant visitor. 80. 81. 82. The Swallow, Martin, and Swift. Also a variety of Finches, and likewise of Diving-Fowl, mustela fusca, and mustela variegata, so called from the resemblance they have to the head of a weesel.—Stockdoves, or wild pigeons, are here found in great numbers; and so are Pheasants, Snipes, and Woodcocks. [200] The Magpie likewise and the Owl are found among the birds of this country.—Not to mention the Blackbird, the Thrush, the Yellow-hammer, the Wagtail, the Titmouse, the Sparrow, the Wren, the Redbreast, and others that are common to most parts of this kingdom.

Many rare plants are said to be found in some parts of this country; but as no good botanist is known to reside here, or to have drawn up a catalogue of them, they cannot be now enumerated. The neighbourhood of East Winch is thought to be one very good spot for botanizing.

Section VI.

Brief account of places before omitted, in the vicinity of Lynn, on this eastern side of the Ouse—Sechey—Runcton—Downham—Denver—Helgay—Southery—Feltwell—Methwold—Stoke, &c. Feltwell New-Fen-District—Fincham—Swaffham—Babingley—Sharnborne—Great Malthouse—Hunston light-house, &c.

Before we conclude this chapter, and this first part the work, it may not be improper, or unacceptable to the reader, to take some notice of a few of the most remarkable places on this side, that have been omitted in the preceding pages. We shall begin with

Sechey, [201] commonly called Sech, a small market town, which lies about three miles from Lynn, to the south, on the Downham and London road. Anciently it belonged to the Lords Bardolf, as apart of their manor of north Runcton. In 33. Hen. III. the then Lord Bardolf had a charter of free warren here, with a weekly market on Mondays, and two fairs annually. Afterwards it passed, with the rest of the said manor, to the Earl of Warwick, who in the reign of James I. had a grant of a market here every fortnight, on Tuesdays, for fat cattle. It seems rather doubtful, if these markets were originally kept every other Tuesday throughout the year: at least it is said not to have been the case for many years past, but only for some of the latter months of the year. They begin at the dawn of day, and are generally over pretty early in the morning. They are also said to be well attended by butchers and graziers from different parts of the country, and sometimes from a considerable distance, even as far as Norwich, or further, and also from Lincolnshire.—The river is navigable, for lighters, a considerable way up into the country beyond this place. Sechey is in the parish of North Runcton; some miles from which, in a southerly direction lies the church of South Runcton, now in a dilapidated state. This ruin presents a semicircular east end of what has been thought an ancient Saxon church, and is believed to be the remains of one given to St. Edmund, in the reign of Canute.—Of the reasonableness and tenability of this belief, some doubts, perhaps, may be justly entertained. The said ruin has certainly the appearance of considerable antiquity, but that appearance, together with its uncommon and semicircular form, will not be quite sufficient to satisfy every one, that it is altogether as old as the days of Canute, or that it has actually stood the brunt and braved the blasts of near a thousand winters.—A few miles further on, in the same direction, is

Downham, or Market Downham, as it is sometimes called. [203] It is pleasantly situated on the side of a hill, and upon the Ouse, over which it has a good bridge. It had heretofore two weekly markets, Mondays and Saturdays, but that is no longer the case; the latter only are now to be considered as its proper market days, on which the town is said to be well supplied with fish and wild fowl, from the adjacent fens. Downham was formerly celebrated for its great butter market, which used to be kept near the bridge, every Monday, and which it seems, has before now supplied London with the immense quantity of ninety thousand firkins in a year. From its being sent by way of Cambridge, it obtained the name of Cambridge butter. These markets have been discontinued, and the butter is now taken for sale to Swaffham. It is said that the privilege of a market was granted to Downham by Edward the confessor, and that its principal manor, with the whole hundred, were given by king Edgar to Ramsey Abbey, whose abbot, as we are further informed, was authorized by King John to hold a fair here. By Henry III. he was invested with the additional authority to try and execute malefactors at his “gallows of Downham.”—Some monastic buildings, and particularly a priory of Benedictine monks, stood formerly near the church.—There is in this town a small dissenting congregation, the chapel belonging to which, was erected in the early part of the last century. In 1801 the town and whole parish of Downham contained 278 houses, and 1512 inhabitants.

Further on, in a low situation, is Denver, a large village, noted as the birth place of Dr. Robert Brady, the English historian. The church is a mean structure, built of Car, or rag-stone, camerated with wooden pannells, and covered with reed, or thatch. Near to this place is Denver Sluice, termed the grand erratum in our fen improvements.—Not far from Denver and Downham lies the village of Helgay, said by some authors [204] to be regularly infested, every six or seven years, by an incredible number of field mice, which, like locusts, would infallibly devour all the corn of every kind, but for the friendly, seasonable, and effectual interposition of a prodigious flight of owls from Norway, which never fail to arrive that year, and stay till they have totally destroyed those mischievous vermin: after which they quietly depart, re-cross the seas, and return to their native forests, attended by the veneration and benediction of all the good people of Helgay, who had derived from them, the most essential benefit, without the least mixture of detriment; as they had, during their whole stay, meddled with no one thing in the place, but the mice.—Such is the substance and purport of this curious story, whose questionable and improbable appearance might be supposed more than sufficient to prevent its being ever passed upon the public as a matter of fact. That, however, has not been the case: it has been therefore introduced here for the purpose of exhibiting it in its true light, as a lying tale, that those credulous people who have been imposed upon, and misled by others, may be undeceived.

Beyond Helgay are the villages of Southery, Feltwell, Methwold, Northwold, Stoke-ferry, Wereham, West Dereham, &c. some of them of pretty large size and population. West Dereham Abbey was formerly a place of no small note, and founded as early as 1188. At the dissolution it went into private hands, and about the close of the 17th. century it was the seat of Sir Thomas Dereham, a diplomatic character. More recently it has successively been the seat of Sir Simeon Stuart, and Lord Montrath. Wereham in former times was possessed by the Clares, who then ranked high among the English barons; and it was the head lordship of what was, and still is called the honor of Clare, of which several neighbouring manors were held. Those great lords had here a prison, and of course a gallows also; which indicate the great sway they once bore in these parts.—These places lie in and about a remarkable drainage tract, called the Feltwell new fen district, which, like the river Nene, has proved a very unfortunate concern to many of those whose property had been unhappily entrusted in the hands of its commissioners. Suspicions of some disreputable doings are said to have been entertained respecting both the above concerns, which will probably deter many from affording any pecuniary aid to the projected Eau-brink Cut, lest it should turn out, or be managed as badly:—if indeed the present formidable opposition to it should finally fail to effect its entire relinquishment: an event which many seem to consider as not at all improbable.—Northerly from these parts is the village and parish of Fincham. In that parish church is a square font, supposed to have belonged to the old church, which is mentioned in Domesday-book.—Further on, in the same direction, and the most considerable place that way, is

Swaffham. This respectable town stands on high ground, upon a dry gravelly soil, and in a situation that seems greatly favourable to health and longevity. Its streets are wide and airy, and the buildings distributed over a considerable space of ground. The houses are generally neat, and many of them large and handsome, inhabited by wealthy and genteel families. The market-hill is pleasant and spacious, on which was erected in 1783 an elegant cross, by the Lord Orford of that time. The market is on Saturday, and plentifully supplied with good provisions. The great butter-market, formerly kept at Downham, is now kept here. The town stands so high, that some of the wells are said to be fifty-yards deep. A handsome assembly-room has been erected on the west side of the market-hill, in which subscription assemblies are held every month. But the chief public structure of the town is the Church, a large and fine edifice, built at different times, in the reigns of Henry VI. Edward IV. and Henry VII. It is in the form of a cathedral, and consists of a nave and two ailes, with two transepts on the south side, one to the north, and a lofty well proportioned tower, which is surmounted with enriched embrasures, and purfled pinnacles. The nave is very lofty, having twenty-six cleristory windows, and its inner roof ornamented with carved wood, figures of angels, bosses, &c. The north aile and steeple, are said to have been built by one John Chapman, stated, but erroneously it seems, to have been a travelling tinker; and who is also reported to have been Church-warden in 1460.—In 1800 the houses of Swaffham amounted to 452, and the population to 2220. Formerly there was here a rector and a vicar; the latter presented by the former; so that the rectory was a Sinecure, and probably a very rich one. The patronage of the vicarage is in the bishop of Norwich.—Near this town is an extensive heath, which forms a convenient race-ground. The races here are held about michaelmas. Coursing matches are also frequent here, and the greyhounds are as regularly entered for the purpose, and placed under the same restrictions as running-horses. [207a]

Further on, between Swaffham and the sea-coast, there are not many places that seem to demand very particular notice. Babingley and Sharnborne, which both lie that way, are traditionally reported to contain the sites of the two first christian places of worship among the East-Anglians, and supposed to have been erected in the seventh century. In the same way lies Snettisham, a large village, said to have been formerly a town, with a weekly market on Fridays. Here also have been dug up several of those instruments, in the shape of hatchet-heads, with handles to them, usually denominated celts, [207b] which, if taken to be British, as is most generally thought, or even Roman, as has been judged by others, most denote that Snettisham is a place of no inconsiderable antiquity. Brancaster has been already noticed, as once a famous Roman station; and it may be here added, that it has of late years attracted no small attention on account of its great malt house, built with a view to the export trade, and supposed to be the largest edifice of that kind in the kingdom; being 312 feet in length, by 31 in breadth, and furnished with all the necessary offices and conveniences for conducting the malting process on a large scale: 420 quarters of barley, are said to have been there wetted weekly, during the malting season.

To the west of Brancaster and the said great malt-house, and not far off, is the village of Hunstanton, or Hunston, as it is most commonly called: near to which, on a cliff, overlooking Lynn Roads and the entrance into Lynn Haven, and elevated ninety feet above high-water mark, stands the Hunston Light-house, which is upon a different construction from other English light-houses, and supposed superior to any of them. It is lighted by lamps and reflectors, instead of coals, on a much improved and very judicious plan, the merit of which is due to Mr. Walker of Lynn, by whom it was invented, and under whose direction it was here executed in 1778.—This light is communicated by 18 concave reflectors, each of eighteen inches diameter. They are fixed upon two shelves, one placed over the other in such a manner that the strongest light may be seen where it is most wanted. In the N by E direction a strong light is necessary for ships to avoid the dangerous sands and shoals on the Lincolnshire coast; here therefore are placed seven reflectors in the space of two points of the compass, which will appear at some distance as one light. In other directions a weaker light is sufficient. A single reflector, with a lamp of ten single threads of cotton placed in the focus of the curve, which is a parabola, will appear, at 15 miles distance, larger than a star of the first magnitude:—that is, if the glass be kept clean, and the lamp trimmed; otherwise, instead of light, there will no doubt be found obscurity, for which no blame can attach to the projector. [209]

This house remained for many years the only one of the kind in the United Kingdom; but about the year 1787, several others, on the same plan, were erected on the coast of Scotland, as appears by the following extracts from one of the provincial papers of that time.—

“Northern Light-houses. An Act of Parliament was obtained a few years ago, by some gentlemen in Edinburgh, impowering them to erect four Light-houses on the Northern parts of Great Britain. In consequence of which the Trustees made diligent enquiry into the several modes of erecting lights for the use of mariners, at sea. These enquiries were made not only in this kingdom, but in foreign parts, that their intended erection might be made on the best principles. In September, 1786, the then Lord Provost of Edinburgh applied to Mr. Ezekiel Walker of Lynn in Norfolk, for his opinion in the construction of them. Mr. Walker’s answer to his lordship’s enquiry, and the plan projected in it, gave such general satisfaction to the Trustees, that they unanimously resolved on constructing and lighting them on his principle; and in the spring of 1787, the work was begun accordingly. The first of these lights stands on Kinnard’s Head, [in the county of Aberdeen;] the second on north Ranaldshaw, the northernmost of the Orkney Islands; the third on the point of Scalpa in the isle of Herris; and the fourth on the Mull of Kyntire, which may be seen in Ireland.” [211]

Cumberland Packet of Sept. 10. 1788.

In the same paper, of Dec. 9. 1789, appeared the following passage—

“Light-houses. The excellent method of erecting light-houses prescribed by Mr. E. Walker is now sufficiently proved. That it produces a strong light is well known, but that this desirable object is attained at a small expence of oil, can only come under the inspection of a few; however one argument, even in favour of this is now made public. The Commissioners for erecting four light-houses on the northern parts of Great Britain obtained another Act the last session of Parliament, authorizing them to erect a fifth: “For the light-house on the south west point of the Mull of Kyntire is found to be of the greatest importance to the navigation of ships passing to and from the north channel; but not to ships passing to and from the Firth of Clyde through the south channel. It is for the security of ships navigating this south channel that the commissioners purpose erecting another light-house on the island of Arran, or upon the little island of Plada, near the same; which is to be done without any increase of the duties authorised to be levied by the former act.”—This act also authorizes the commissioners to erect other light-houses on the coast of Scotland, whenever the produce of the present duties on the tonage of ships will enable them so to do.—This at once justifies the decided opinion of the commissioners in favour of Mr. Walker’s projection, and pronounces the most unequivocal encomium on his abilities.”

Being now about to close our remarks on the country about Lynn, it may be here noted, in regard to Marshland and the fenny parts in general, that so little care appears to have been taken there to counteract, or guard against the natural insalubrity of the country, and promote the health of the inhabitants, that not a few of the older dwelling-houses, and particularly those of the cottagers, and lower classes, have their floors actually underground, or below the surface of the land on the outside. This can be said to furnish but a very indifferent sample or specimen of the boasted wisdom of our ancestors. Those of the present generation, however, cannot with much good grace blame them on this occasion, while they are themselves at the expence and pains of keeping up and repairing those same unhealthful dwellings. Our new houses indeed are generally, if not always constructed upon a much better plan; and that may be said to be one of the few things in which we appear to exceed our forefathers. In other things we certainly fall short of them, and act our parts much worse than they would have done—even so much worse, that they would unquestionably have blushed for, and despised us, and that very justly, had they foreseen some of our recent proceedings.

End of Part I.