26 



NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



issue forth in little parties (for in their natural state they are all 

 birds of the night), to feed in the brooks and meadows; returning 

 again with the dawn of the morning. Had this lake an arm or 



X 



~\ \Sx\ \\ d/'x/'xY* / v-\ 



^ 



/ i 



WILD DUCKS. 



two more, and were it planted round with thick covert (for now it 

 is perfectly naked), it might make a valuable decoy. 



Yet neither its extent, nor the clearness of its water, nor the 

 resort of various and curious fowls, nor its picturesque groups of 

 cattle, can render this meer so remarkable as the great quantity 

 of coins that were found in its bed about forty years ago. But, 

 as such discoveries more properly belong to the antiquities of 

 this place, I shall suppress all particulars for the present, till I 

 enter professedly on my series of letters respecting the more 

 remote history of this village and district. 



LETTER IX. 



BY way of supplement, I shall trouble you once more on this 

 subject, to inform you that Wolmer, with her sister forest Ayles 



