PENNANT. 159 



antiquities of places, but the most interesting re- 

 marks are upon natural history subjects, some of 

 which are scientific and others not at all so. When 

 in Lincolnshire he noticed the fens near Revesby 

 Abbey, eight miles beyond Horncastle, which he j 

 says are of vast extent, but serve for little other > 

 purpose than the rearing of great numbers of geese, 

 which are the wealth of the fenmen. " During the 

 breeding season these birds are lodged in the same 

 houses with the inhabitants and even in their very 

 bed-chambers. In every apartment there are three 

 rows of coarse wicker pens, placed one above 

 another ; each bird has its separate lodge divided 

 from the other, which it keeps possession of during 

 its time of setting. A person called a gozzard 

 attends the flock, and twice a day drives the whole 

 to water ; then brings them back to their habita- 

 tions, helping those that live in the upper stories 

 to their nests, without even misplacing a single 

 bird. The geese are plucked five times in the 

 year. The first plucking is at Lady Day, for feathers 

 and quills, and the same is renewed, for feathers 

 only, four times between this and Michaelmas. 

 The old geese submit very quietly to the operation, 

 but the young ones are very noisy and unruly. I 

 once saw this performed, and observed that the 

 goslings of six weeks old were not spared, for their 

 tails were plucked, as I was told to habituate them 

 early to what they were to come to. If the season 

 proves cold, numbers of geese die from this bar- 

 barous custom. Vast numbers are driven annually 



