AN " ANCIENT MARKET-TOWNE " 189 



the river-banks as far as the priory garden, from which 

 possibly it originally escaped. Now it is confined to 

 this one spot, where it maintains a precarious existence, 

 and will doubtless soon be gone. In this manner our 

 rarer and more beautiful wild-flowers become extinct, 

 and civilisation converts our " commons" into straw- 

 berry beds and potato plots, and drives away the black 

 game from the " heathy ground " ; while the haunts of 

 the wild-fowl are yearly becoming more encroached 

 upon, and before long it may be the weird cry of the 

 peewit will be heard no more in the desolate marshes 

 which skirt the haven by the sea. 



