[appendix b.] birds op noefolk. 397 



The entry in the le Strange Household Book of 1527 

 has been cited (p. 2) as the earliest record of the bustard 

 in Norfolk ; but Mrs. Herbert Jones in her " Sandring- 

 ham Past and Present" (London, 1883), quotes (p. 23) 

 from the Chamberlain's accounts of the Borough of 

 King's Lynn, preserved among the Corporation docu- 

 ments of that time, to the following effect : — " In 1371 

 the 44th of Edward III., 39s. 8d. was paid for wine, 

 bustards, herons, and oats, presented to John Nevile, 

 Admiral.""^ 



Passing from this remote period to the end of the 

 last century, among the papers left by the late Mr. 

 Lubbock are some notes that are worth preserving. 

 One is as follows : — 



" Mr. Browne, the Eector of Bio Norton, tells me 

 that in 1783 his grandfather, whilst riding on a Sunday 

 from Eccles to Wretham, to perform divine service, 

 passed seven bustards, which were walking about close 

 to the road. They did not retreat or appear much 

 alarmed. Mr. B. was fond of coursing, but notorious as 

 a bad hare finder. ' To show you how near they were 

 to me,' said he, ' I could find a hare sitting amongst 

 them.' " 



Not long after we find the poet Cowper writing, on 

 the 31st of January, 1793, to his cousin John Johnson 

 (father of a rector of Yaxham and Welborne, in this 

 county, of the same name, who was editor of Cowper's 

 correspondence) ; and, after mentioning that he had 

 been prevented from asking their friends the Courtenays 

 to dine with them since their marriage owing to the 

 illness of his friend, Mrs. Unwin, with whose family 

 he was staying, continuing : — 



" But this is no objection to the arrival here of a 

 bustard ; rather it is a cause for which we shall be 



* Mi'S. Jones observes that the word bustard does not occur 

 in the list of supplies sent to Queen Isabella at Castle Rising, nor 

 did bustards form a dish at the grand dinner given at Lynn to 

 the Lord Chancellor in the reign of Henry IV., at which dinner, 

 curlews, plovers, ducks, and so on abounded, and hence argues 

 that bustards could hardly have been very common at that time. 

 This negative evidence, I think, does not warrant the lady's 

 conclusion. 



