458 



NA rURE 



[_Sept. 15, 1887 



book to the Broads and rivers, but also to the principal 

 towns and villages in their neighbourhood, and enters 

 somewhat fully into the archaeology of the district, having 

 a special feeling for the churches. Chapters are also 

 devoted to the Broad District in the seasons of spring, 

 summer, autumn, and winter, the dialect and character- 

 istics of the natives of East Norfolk, the fish, and how 

 to take them, and a variety of other useful information. 

 Mr. Suffling, although dating from London, claims to 

 be a native of Norfolk, and internal evidence proves him 

 to be no stranger to the country he writes about. His 

 book is, therefore, free from many incongruities so jarring 

 in similar books written by evident strangers to the 

 places and people with regard to whom they undertake 

 to instruct others. His chapter on the characteristics 

 and dialect of the natives, whom we wish he would call 

 " Marshmen," and not " Fenmen," the latter (inhabiting 

 quite another part of the country, and of Girvian descent), 

 a much inferior people in many respects to the hardy in- 

 habitants of the Broads. In the introduction to the first 

 edition Mr. Suffling asks for corrections of inaccuracies, 

 and in the subsequent edition acknowledges that one or 

 two errors have been pointed out to him. He will, we are 

 sure, therefore excuse our making a few remarks which may 

 be of service to him in a future edition. Mr. Suffling ap- 

 pears very loose about his natural history observations, and 

 when he speaks of the decoys which still linger in this 

 county (p. 28) he is altogether at sea. This is inexcusable, 

 for, as a native of the Broads, he certainly ought to be 

 acquainted with Mr, Lubbock's charming " Fauna of 

 Norfolk," in which so long ago as 1845 ^ fi^^i explanation 

 of the mode of working these ingenious contrivances was 

 given, not to mention Sir Ralph Payne-Galhvey's more 

 recent and exhaustive work on the same subject. The 

 great essential of a decoy is absolute quiet and freedom 

 from disturbance both inside and out; the du:ks are 

 taken by decoying them into the pipe, not by driving, and 

 the dog is used for the purpose of exciting the curiosity of 

 the fowl, \i\)\c:h. follow him up the pipe ; it is not till they 

 are so far up the pipe as to be hidden by its curve from the 

 fowl that are hanging about its mouth, that the decoy-man 

 shows himself, and then it is done in such a way as not 

 to alarm the fowl outside the pipe which he hopes to 

 entice later on. A boat would destroy the sport for many 

 a day, perhaps for the remainder of the season ; a dog 

 which entered the water would be hanged at once, and 

 decoy-ducks which rushed into the purse-net with the 

 wild ones would be useless ; their business is not to 

 follow the wild fowl too far up the pipe, but to remain 

 quietly on the water when the man shows himself. We 

 cannot imagine what bird is meant by the "long-winged 

 owl" (p. 4), which is said to be "the most destructive of 

 its tribe." We presume Arvancusis, at p. 7, should be 

 Mastodon arvernensis. The tools mentioned as found 

 by Canon Greenwell, at p. 8, were not in a "barrow," but 

 in the working of an ancient chalk-pit. The Honorary 

 Secretary to the Yare Preservation Society will be de- 

 lighted to receive contributions (p. 31) for providing 

 river-watchers, not the Board of Conservators, a totally 

 different body with perfectly distinct functions. The so- 

 called "monkey house" mentioned at p. 61 is a very 

 modern erection, built by the late Sir Robert Harvey as 

 a ferry house, and is altogether innocent of the days of 



" good Queen Bess." The kingfisher is known to 

 naturalists as Alcedo ispida, not hispida (p. 143), (surely 

 the " halcyon days " could not have been suggestive of 

 roughness in any sense of the word !), and the cuckoo 

 does not turn out the eggs from the hedge-sparrow's nest 

 and deposit a clutch of its own in their place, as implied 

 at p. 217, but lays a single egg, the young one hatched 

 from which subsequently appropriates the nest entirely 

 to its own use by turning out the eggs or young of its 

 foster parents. It was the father of the late Mr. Robert 

 Rising who purchased the Horsey estate (p. 199), and 

 the fine collection of local birds was dispersed by auction 

 in September 1885. As to the story of the Bishop of 

 Norwich being the only abbot left in England, and sitting 

 in the House of Lords by virtue of that office (p. 126)^ 

 Mr. Walter Rye, no mean authority on Norfolk archaeo- 

 logy, can find no foundation for such a statement, and 

 believes it to be "just as true as the tale that WiUiam the 

 Conqueror besieged the place, and that a recreant monk 

 who betrayed it to him was first made abbot and then 

 hanged by him." There are many other little matters 

 which might be amended in a future edition, but space 

 forbids our referring to them. 



The next book on our list is " Three Weeks in 

 Norfolk," by Mr. J. F. M. Clarke, a book chiefly de- 

 voted to a narration of the troubles experienced by the 

 voyagers, owing, in the first instance, to an unpunctual 

 skipper, and subsequently to a drunken one. Mr. 

 Clarke certainly seems to have been very unfortunate 

 in this respect, but, judging from our experience of these 

 men, much of the trouble may have arisen from his friend 

 H. addressing the man " sternly, in the cold unemotional 

 tones characteristic to him in moments of wrath," a mode 

 of proceeding not likely to be appreciated by men of his 

 class : probably more siiaviter in modo would have been 

 attended with greater success and less final loss of 

 dignity. Doubtless yachting men will be deeply grateful 

 for the lucid explanation of the art and mystery of " tack- 

 ing," accompanied by a diagram, given at p. 13. The 

 author tells a tale of a boy of whom he " made free to 

 ask in a spirit of banter" what fish he had caught; the 

 reply was, in an equally " bantering " vein, " half a last." 

 The author remarks that as he " for the moment forgot 

 that the ' last ' meant 4000 lbs.," he was without retort, 

 and the boy gained the day. Had our author been a 

 Norfolk man, he would have known that a " last " is 

 13,200 fish. Mr. Clarke seems surprised that he should 

 meet with a gentleman in the wilds of Norfolk. Whether 

 Mr. Girling will recognize his own portrait or not 

 cannot say, for he is a modest man, but such men 

 happily far from uncommon in this county. Scarcely 

 better taste are the remarks with regard to that 

 graceful, fair, and, above all, refined " creature whom 

 christened " Evangeline." Such remarks could hardly 

 very edifying to a rustic village maid should they m 

 her eye ; but it may interest Mr. Clarke to know that 

 " being so refined, with so much polish of manner, 

 having so good a taste in dress," and her fond mam 

 have disappeared from Wroxham, and we believe h 

 left no address. 



"A Month on the Norfolk Broads,'' by Mr.Walter Ry 

 a book of quite another kind, as might be expected from! 

 accomplished a writer. The " poet, the liar, the athl 



