XVI INTRODUCTION. 



in the south-eastern corner, with its small fields, 

 clustering homesteads, rich meadows, and well timbered 

 hedge-rows. 



THE BROAD DISTRICT. 



To enter more fully, however, into the physical 

 peculiarities of these different sections, we shall com- 

 mence with the Broad District, both as possessing the 

 greatest amount of interest for the naturalist and sports- 

 man, and presenting, notwithstanding the results of 

 agricultural enterprise, certain local conditions peculiar 

 to the north-eastern portions of Norfolk and Suffolk. It 

 is only necessary, as Mr. Lubbock remarks, to draw an 

 imaginary triangle on the map from Lowestoft to 

 Norwich, and thence in a north-easterly direction to the 

 sea at Happisburgh, to include the whole of that " great 

 alluvial flat, once the bed of the Garienis ostium,'* 

 whose sluggish waters give rise to those shallow lakes 

 or lagoons, here locally termed Broads. It is, more- 

 over, worthy of notice that the wide extent of coast-line 

 which would thus form the base of the triangle, 

 presents (with the exception of a low range of cliffs 

 between Lowestoft and Yarmouth) the same level 

 features as the surrounding country. The flat sandy 

 shore, raised here and there by beds of '' shingle," 

 is backed only by such natural barriers against the 

 influx of the tides, as are presented by the undulations 

 of the grassy " Denes " in the vicinity of Yarmouth, 

 or the "Marram" hills, extending northward as far as 

 Happisburgh, which consist of steep banks of blown 

 sand loosely bound together with the roots of marram'^ 

 (Arundo arenaria) and other grasses. Further inland, 

 again, are marshes in every stage of reclamation, and an 



* This local word is nearly identical with the Danish name of 

 the same plant, Marehalm — i.e., Mere-haulm or sea-straw. 



