SOUTH SITCH, IDRIDGEHAV. 9 



course. Originally there were two fishponds, but that opposite 



the house has long ago been drained and planted. These ponds 



are probably survivals of the time when even an older house 



stood at South Sitch, for in mediaeval days fishponds were an 



almost necessary adjunct to a 



manor house. At HuUand, for ['''^ '"-^Z^, 



instance, three or four miles 



away, the ancient moated hall 



has gone, and the moat is dry, 



but the fine series of fishponds, 



constructed, to quote an ancient 



charter, "where the place gives 



opportunity," remain to remind 



us of an age when fresh-water 



fish formed an important item 



in the larder of a self-contained 



community. 



In these days, though, thanks 



. The Fishpond, 



to our Archaeological Societies, 



our more monumental antiquities are generally well cared for, 



the buildings of a humbler but not less interesting class are 



rapidly disappearing to make way for more pretentious, but not 



always more comfortable, houses. Our thanks should, therefore, 



be given to anyone who will undertake the trouble and sometimes 



the expense of maintaining them. May South Sitch always 



have an owner who' will lovingly preserve it so long as its old 



wooden walls will hold together. 



For the photographic plates illustrating this article we are indebted to 

 Mr. A. Victor Haslam, and for the small photographs and the sketch of the 

 bolt to Mr. J. Somes Storey. 



