INTRODUCTION. xUx 



towards Swaffham, and thence northwards again, with 

 but slight deviation as far as North Creake ; passing 

 to the west of the Rainham estate, but including the 

 princely Houghton with its park and plantations, and 

 its noble beeches of a far older date. From North 

 Creake, turning sharp towards the west and skirting the 

 '^rneal" district about Burnham and Brancaster the 

 line would run direct to the coast, once more, below 

 Hunstanton. 



The soil of this district, even at the present time 

 comparatively unenclosed, is composed in great part of 

 very light land, of a depth varying from a few inches to 

 several feet, lying upon hard chalk, but in places, and 

 these sometimes of no inconsiderable extent, it is suffi- 

 ciently interspersed with clay to produce very fair 

 wheat, barley of the best quality, and valuable root- 

 crops. Until within the last half-century, however, 

 wheat was scarcely ever grown, and rye was the staple 

 grain. The greater part of this district consists of what 

 are locally called " brecks " — that is, ground which at 

 some time or other has been "broken-up" by the plough — 

 and hence the name here assigned to it. Many of these 

 ^' brecks," never very fertile to begin with, through bad 

 farming and consequent exhaustion of the soil, have 

 been long abandoned as arable land, and are now used 

 as sheep-walk ; but others form, in many cases, 

 commons or heaths, on which the hasty observer would 

 never recognize the trace of a plough. Not that there 

 are not, however, some extensive tracts, which have, 

 probably, never been under cultivation. With the 

 improvement of husbandry, about the beginning of 

 the present century, came into vogue the practice of 

 making plantations,* for the whole country, with a few 



* On Wretham heath are, or were a few years ago, some very 

 fine old Scotch fir-trees (Pinus sylvestris) , stated, though on doubtful 

 authority, not to have been planted by the hand ofma/n. 

 9 



