Press Opinions on " Broadland Sport "—r<7«/^. 



better than make inquiries on the East Coast between Yarmouth 

 and Southwold. The Broads themselves and the reed beds 

 will supply any number of wild fowl, besides first-rate pike and 

 perch-fishing ; the woods and the osier beds will hold plenty of 

 pheasants, hares, and woodcock, while on the adjoining stubbles, 

 turnips, and heather, some of the best partridge shooting in 

 England, of the old-fashioned kind, is to be had. The marshes 

 should yield abundance of snipe, and the gorse-covered sand- 

 banks ought to be peopled with rabbits. Such a sporting 

 Paradise may still be picked up in Broadland, if you like to pay 

 the price. But as game and wild iowl are not nearly so plentiful 

 as they used to be, while the demand for them is much greater, 

 a really good shoot in this highly-favoured region has now 

 become an expensive luxury. There is still, however, a con- 

 siderable extent of fairly good open shooting to be got, though 

 many places once famous for it have now sadly deteriorated. 

 The fate of Oulton Broad may stand for several more : — ' In 

 days gone by there were several inhabitants in the quaint little 

 waterway village who gained their sole means of livelihood 

 from fish and fowl. That was before the railway came and before 

 steam drainage mills were heard of, and a Cockney would have 

 been considered daft had he then thought fit to appear in the 

 regions of Broadland in the costume and general rig-out which 

 is now no longer strange to the quiet dwellers in this out-of-the- 

 way corner of Old England. Drainage was the first great 

 blow to sport, steam and railways the next, then the breech- 

 loader, and finally the invading host of would-be sportsmen, all 

 eager to kill something. Year by year the water-birds have 

 diminished in number, and by degrees they desert the more 

 frequented rivers, streams, and broads until on many of the 

 more public waterways there is hardly an edible wild water-bird 

 per hundred acres. Oulton has suffered most in this respect. 

 We do not suppose there is a public shooting water in Norfolk 

 or Suffolk which has been so harassed. Often are seen pictures 

 in the London illustrated papers entitled, " Wildfowling on 

 Oulton Broad," wherein the artist depicts a shooter sitting on 

 the bottom of a punt, in the reeds, with his waterman holding 

 an anxious-looking retriever by the collar. Overhead are flying 

 streams of mallard and wild-duck, and the envious looker-on 

 anticipates that at least a score will grace the bag before the 

 shooter returns to breakfast. What a myth ! What a snare 

 and delusion 1 Years gone by such a picture would not have 

 been an exaggeration, but now things are sadly altered, and 

 if the shooter killed one couple of mallard during the month 

 of August on Oulton Broad, he would be considered fortunate.' 

 Horning Ferry, on the river Bure, must be one of the most 



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