XXX INTRODUCTION. 



purposes of cultivation, skirts tlie edge of the cliffs 

 to their furthest extent ; and, more particularly at 

 Runton the banks and pathways exhibit in summer 

 such a profusion of wild flowers as never fails to attract 

 the notice and admiration of visitors.'^ The luxuriance 

 of their growth is not less surprising than the variety 

 of colour, nor can we wonder at the flocks of Linnets, 

 Finches, Buntings, and Larks that seek the fragrant 

 shelter of these flowery pastures during the nesting 

 season, and feast in the autumn, with their young 

 broods, on the rich harvest of seeds. The great Corn- 

 Bunting (Emberiza oniliaria), amongst others, is very 

 abundant in this locality, and its nest, on the ground, 

 is not unfrequently hidden amongst the thick growth 

 of the modest " rest-harrow." 



Still further inland a second range of hills, running 

 parallel with, and extending beyond, the cliffs, adds 

 greatly to the beauty of this romantic scenery, which, 

 in places, may bear comparison with many choice spots 

 on the south coast of the Isle of Wight. From these 

 grassy heights, covered, in many parts, with furze, 

 brakes, and heather, or thickly planted along their sides 

 and hollows, a perfect panorama of the district presents 

 itself; and, looking seawards, the valley beneath is 

 so thickly dotted with clustering villages that one fails 

 not to recall the quaint old couplet — • 



" Giminghain, Trimingham, Knapton, and Trunch, 

 I^orthrepps, and Soutlirepps, are all of a buncli." 



* "Walter White, in his charming work on " Eastern England 

 from the Thames to the Humber," specially mentions this floral 

 luxuriance, greater than he had observed in any other part of 

 the English coast, and suggests the probability that the presence 

 of chalk and marl in the cliffs may have something to do with it. 

 He also states, on the authority of Professor Babington, "that out 

 of one thousand seven hundred and sixty-seven species of flowering 

 plants found in Britain, one thousand and sixty-seven are found in 

 ITorfolk." 



