22 FEBRUARY IN BROADLAND. 



moored close by the house, stacked with freshly-cut reeds. We are soon seated 

 around the table, 'quite at home,' and on the best of terms. What pleasant 

 gossip makes the meal a luxury! Of itself it is one, for our viands are not un- 

 savoury or badly brought to table. Who could say ' Nay ! ' to a leg of plump wild 

 rabbit, snared in the little garden-patch outside, or to tender lapwing, shot but 

 the day before upon the marshes? Did we like apiece of boiled pike and potatoes 

 or a plate of potted eels? Did we not? And didn't we just enjoy a nice little 

 cut from a wild goose's breast, and that wind-up with the richest of home-made 

 bread with a bit of cheese such as you seldom find better out of the county? 

 Eather! But that goose it was a pink-footed fellow (Anser brachyrhyncus), so 

 we told our host, who, not having shot the like before, so he said, had saved the 

 feet for identification. He was ' gormed,' like Ham Peggoty, if he could ' spake 

 them hard words at all ! ' and good eating the goose was too; and the tea wasn't 

 bad which washed down this strange Broadland repast. As for Jim, a huge dump- 

 ling, packed full of starlings, formed the principal item on his bill of fare. And 

 the old fellow, with his tousled hair, his unkempt beard, and ruddy complexion, 

 appeared to thrive on his homely fare and his outdoor life in the strong, pure 

 air of East Anglia. And how does the fenman pass his time through each 

 succeeding season ? Let Jim tell us, for he has settled to his after-meal pipe, and 

 has waxed chatty and communicative as the smoke curls upward. 



* Well, vow see it's like this, 'bor, there's allus suffin' tu du, be the days long 

 or short, and be they hot or cold. Start from tu-day, if yow like; I'm sloggin' hard 

 in among the reeds jest now, and have been off an' on since Christmas, when the 

 wather ha' let me. What du they du with the reeds? Why, use 'em for thatchin', 

 mostly. Years ago, afore laths wasriv', and sold for plasterin', we used to make a 

 better figure on 'em than we du tu-day. Law ! times ain't noways like as they was 

 long years ago; everything is changed and for the wuss, at least for us fenmen. 

 We ain't fenmen now, but simply lab'rers. 



( Time was when we cud git our livin' an' that's fifty yeer ago an' more on 

 an' out o' the Broad alone. There was allus somethin' in the fishin' or shootin' 

 line tu du. Now-a-days it's reed-cuttin' in winter, mixin' it off with a little eel- 

 pickin' (eel-spearing) when the wather's open. Then cums ditchin' an' hedgin'. 

 In June theer's ' haysel,' or hayharvest, for which we get pay accordin' tu day or 

 acre or loads, jist as we agree for. Then there's gladdon-cuttin' for litter that's 

 the rough marshy stuff mixed with young sedges, reeds, an' so on. Later on cums 

 harvest. Gret that over, and we go arter the eels agin, among which we sometimes 

 du pretty good bisness, l babbin ' for 'em, catchin' 'em in bigger numbers as the 



