Natural History. 1 1 1 



N. Muskham which is on the west, and there is evidence that 

 the water or the greater portion of it once flowed between 

 Langford and Holme, and not as it does now between Holme 

 and N. Muskham. Hence the name of Langford may 

 reasonably be supposed to be derived from the " Long ford " 

 which in days of yore had to be crossed in getting from the 

 one to the other of these places. 



II. There is still extant what may be called the original or 

 principal bed of the Trent, now known by the name of the 

 " Fleet," being in some parts twenty or thirty yards wide in 

 Langford Lordship, and connected by a narrow neck with the 

 Trent some three miles north of Newark. The Fleet 

 passing through Langford runs hard by the villages of South 

 and North Collingham through Besthorpe where it widens 

 into a fine sheet of water at least 150 yards wide and nearly a 

 mile long, on to Girton, where no doubt in comparatively 

 recent times a narrow channel has been cut almost at right 

 angles to take this water again to the Trent. Before this 

 channel was cut, in all probability, the Fleet, or rather the 

 ancient river, or the greater portion of it, would continue its 

 course through the low lands of Girton to Spalford, whence it 

 would go, as described by Mr. Burton, to "join the Witham a 

 short distance west of Lincoln." 



III. This Fleet is about a mile, more or less, from the 

 present bed of the stream, and between them there is a series 

 of pools, apparently beginning at S. Collingham and extending 

 through N. Collingham, Besthorpe, and Girton, like links of 

 a sunken chain floating to the surface one by one at irregular 

 intervals, tracing the course of a central stream. These pools 

 have distinctive names, e.g. Cowarth, Mons pool, Black pool, 

 Leech pool, some still possessing considerable depth of water, 

 and some being rapidly silted up, stock now grazing on places 

 which can be remembered as formerly the haunts of the 

 voracious pike. 



IV. There is yet another stream to be considered and this 

 is known as the " Old Trent " and runs almost from west to 

 east from that river to Spalford, dividing that hamlet from the 

 parish of S. Clifton. This still contains a good deal of water 

 till it comes within a short distance of the " High Flood 

 Bank," extending from the Spalford sandhills to South Clifton, 

 from ten to fifteen feet high, which was erected no doubt with 

 the object of changing the course of the Trent. Near this 

 spot all these streams met. And here crosses the road from 



