1821.] Voyage to the Cape 



Priory aud Brechin Castle, north of the 

 River Tay. The Earl of Fife has 

 stocked his estates in Bamffshire, aud 

 even so far north the pheasant thrives 

 well. On the M'est of Scotland I am 

 not informed if the pheasant has as 

 yet been tried beyond Ayrshire, where, 

 however, it abounds on the estates of 

 the Earls of Eglington and Cassillis. 



It is almost needless to mention, 

 that pheasants will abound no where 

 without winter food — in Scotland, per- 

 haps, more particularly than in Eng- 

 land ; because, although the country 

 is well wooded by plantations, there is 

 very little natural wood, and of course 

 underwood is scarce. The berries and 

 insects that underwood affords are 

 great sources of support to the pheasant. 

 The pheasant, the turkey, and even 

 our common cocks and hens thrive 

 best in a mixture of corn, wild seeds, 

 and insects. 



The winter feeding of pheasants in 

 Scotland is coniined to throwing out, 

 in their resorts, sheaves of oats. In 

 Norfolk, I believe, buck-wheat is used, 

 but this is a grain that does not afford 

 a sure ripened crop every year in Scot- 

 land. 



I may, on a future occasion, give 

 you some loose notices on the roe-deer 

 and wild turkey. X. X. 



Scarborough, Feb. 2, 1821. 



*^* If the following' grant of Dengy 

 Hundred, in Essex, be not a monkish for- 

 gery, pheasants must have been introduced 

 long before the time of Edward the Con- 

 fessor. The grant is by Edward to Ran- 

 dolph Peperking, to be found in the re- 

 cords of the Exchequer. 



Iche Edward Koning 

 Have given of my forest and keeping, 

 Of the Hundred of Chelmer and Dancing, 

 To Randulph Peperking, and to his kind- 

 ling, 

 With hearte and kinde, Doe and Bocke, 

 Hare and Fox, Cat and Brocke, 

 Wild Fowell, with his Flocke, 

 Patriche, Fesant-Hen and Fesant-Cocke, 

 With greene and wilde stob and flocke. 

 &c. &c. &c. 



Hence it is not improbable that the last 

 of the Romans may have imported the 

 pheasant into Britain. Indeed, we have 

 always considered that the Romans, in the 

 last half century of their residence in this 

 island, may have introduced more arts and 

 refinements than we are at present aware 

 of, which, in spite of the many barbarous 

 invasions of the Anglo-Saxons, and Danes, 

 never were lost and forgotten. 



But we have hinted that the grant may 

 be a monkish forgery. Such forgeries were 

 common when priests wished to establish an 



of the New Settlers. 205 



ancient right to lands that lay convenient 

 to them, or that wanted an immediate 

 claimant. 



Iche Koning, kindling, heartie, and 

 broche, are Anglo-Saxon words ; the rest 

 are more modern than the Confessor's a?ra. 

 How come the hare and fox to be coupled? 

 Fox-hunting was not practised in those 

 days. Aud why is the wolf omitted ? The 

 doe and buck mean fallow deer; but We 

 very much doubt if fallow deer existed in 

 Britain till long after the Conquest. 



It is singular that no instance at present 

 strikes us, of the pheasant being a bird 

 used in heraldry. We have the peacock, 

 the cock, the swan, goose, and duck, among 

 domestic birds ; the eagle, hawks, martin, 

 swallow, heron, &c. But the beauty of 

 the pheasant, aud being a bird at table in 

 great feasts, might have placed it in the 

 herald's court. Perhaps it was because 

 the pheasant is a bird to which no parti- 

 cular character is attached ; it affords no 

 emblem on which alone heraldry is founded. 



For the Monthly Magazine. 

 NARRATIVE of a Foijage to, and five 

 Months'' Residence at, /Ae MOUTH of 

 the GREAT FISH RIVER ; being an 

 accurate description of the condition 

 of the Emigrants lately settled in 

 that part of Southern Africa. By 



T. I,. JONES. 



[During the period of the narrator's stay 

 in that part of Africa to which this pub- 

 lication relates, he suffered no occurrence 

 deemed worthy of recital to escape his ob- 

 servation ; and aware that the only merit 

 that can be attached to it, is a strict re- 

 gard to truth in the narration, he pledge* 

 himself to have been very exact in this par- 

 ticular.] 



THE ships Chapman and Nautilus, 

 being the first two that were taken 

 up for the purpose of conveying the 

 settlers to their destination ; the for- 

 mer, having on board Messrs. Baillie 

 and Carlile, and their respective pai-- 

 ties, dropped down from the King's 

 Dock, Deptford, to Blackwall, for the 

 purpose of taking in stores from thence, 

 below Woolwich, and, after experienc- 

 ing some rough weather in the Margate 

 Roads, cleared the Land's End on the 

 9th of December, 1819. The latter, 

 with the respective parties of Messrs. 

 Owen, Rolls, Crause, Manby, and 

 Smith, having twice struck on the 

 Goodwin's (through the negligence of 

 the pilot) the evening prececling, clear- 

 ed the Land on the 8th of the same 

 month. It is but justice here to state, 

 that nothing that could tend, in the 

 smallest degree, to our comfort and 

 accommodation, was n^lected by his 

 Majesty's 



