Ixvi INTRODUCTION. 



and abundant riralets ; and the fields being divided into 

 an infinity of small enclosures by lofty fences, thickly 

 studded with trees, give a character of its own to this 

 portion of the county. At Hapten, Plordon, Forncett, 

 &c., although drainage has everywhere diminished the 

 haunts of the Snipe, yet the black soil of the drains has 

 at all seasons an attraction for the Green-Sandpiper, 

 (Totanus ochropus). This species is also frequent about 

 the chain of small fens which are situated on the river 

 Thet, near Hargham, Buckenham, and Attleborough ; 

 where Snipe are still plentiful, and from whence, amongst 

 other rarities, Baillon's Crake (Crex haillonij, has been 

 obtained in some two or three instances. The Great 

 Northern-Diver (Colymbus glacialis) has been likewise 

 killed on the lake at Quiddenham, in the same neigh- 

 bourhood, many miles from the sea, being about equi- 

 distant from the coast either at Lynn or Yarmouth. 



" All England," wrote Dr. Fuller, " may be carved 

 out of Norfolk, for here are fens and heaths, light and 

 deep, sandy and clay lands, and pastm-es, arable and 

 woodlands." Nor is this description altogether inap- 

 plicable at the present time, though the proportion of 

 arable to heath, fen, and woodland, has been reversed 

 through the necessities of an increased population. 

 Even now the ^^ enclosed" district, as here shown, is 

 strangely diversified in its features, and in spite of all 

 the changes effected during the last half century 

 throughout the county, the main points of difference 

 between East and West Norfolk are as marked as ever. 

 The very term "enclosed" suggests at once the antipodes 

 of such wild open tracts as have been already described 

 under the name of "brecks." Small farms and small 

 fields take the place of large holdings and wide open 

 lands, and the foliage on all sides, in the thickly 

 timbered hedgerows, plantations, gardens, and orchards, 

 gives every where a tone of warmth and homeliness to 



