Ixiv INTRODUCTION. 



parks and plantations and fine sheets of ornamental 

 water. It would be needless, however, to attempt to 

 enumerate, here, the smaller parks and pleasant country- 

 seats, which, scattered in all directions, form so agree- 

 able a feature in this portion of the county ; not only 

 its richly wooded character, but its highly cultivated 

 condition, may be gathered from the fact that at least 

 nine or ten Rookeries exist witliin five miles of Norwich, 

 and but few estates of any extent are without some 

 colonies, large or small, of these social birds. 



Although, on the better soils, the old natural 

 woods have yielded by slow degrees to the encroach- 

 ments of the plough, yet, with the improvements in 

 agriculture, was also introduced, as shown by Kent in 

 his survey of Norfolk farming,"^ a general system of 

 planting. Great numbers of firs, Scotch, larch, and 

 spruce, either planted in belts and " slips," or intermixed 

 with forest trees, were reared for the ornamentation of 

 parks and pleasure grounds, and, as may be seen 

 at Stratton-Strawless and many other places, barren 

 commons and sandy wastes were thus made to assume 

 a much more cheerful aspect. The Horstead chalk-pits 

 present a remarkable example of the picturesque effects, 

 which may be thus produced. The sloping sides of the 

 older cuttings have been thickly planted with firs of 

 various kinds, rising, as it were, in terraces from the 

 banks of the stream, which winds its way between the 

 now verdant heights ; and, from the peculiar character 

 of the scene, this spot has acquired the very appropriate 

 name of " Little Switzerland." 



Besides the more modern game preserves, however, 

 for which the county is now so celebrated, there are 

 some remnants of far older woods, whose history 



* "General View of the Agriculture of the County of Norfolk," 

 by Nathaniel Kent. Published in 1813. 



