A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



Concerning the game birds of Suffolk the 

 grey partridge may be considered as indigenous, 

 although at one time it must have been much 

 scarcer than at present. Probably this is accounted 

 for by the absence of corn cultivation, upon 

 which the bird so greatly depends, as is soon 

 found when land is thrown down to grass. The 

 pheasant bred wild, and the hen was not often 

 shot. ' A brace of hens, gentlemen,' was the 

 ordinary advice at the commencement of the 

 shoot. One hundred cocks was a fine day's 

 sport and was seldom exceeded, even at Ryde, 

 the Duke of Norfolk's estate ; or at Whitmere 

 Wood, when the Duke of York came down to 

 Rendlesham. There was no artificial rearing of 

 game, and the principal duty of the keeper was 

 to trap or otherwise kill rats and other vermin. 

 The pheasant was of the old variety (P. colchicui), 

 as the China bird (P. torquatui) had not been 

 introduced. The redleg partridge was not very 

 common, nor had it made its way far from Sud- 

 bourne, where it was introduced about 1818 by 

 Lord Hertford ; and when shot at Henham or 

 Newmarket at that date they were often stuffed 

 as a ' variety.' When they were numerous they 

 were not liked ; it was said they spoiled the dogs 

 by running. On the light lands and the heaths 

 they flourished, and soon established themselves 

 along the entire country, but the prejudice 

 against them was strong, and on some estates, 

 such as Oakley and Brome, they were destroyed 

 by the keepers. They were very wild at all 

 seasons, and the best bags were made in snow 

 when it was too deep for them to run but this 

 belongs to a later epoch. Neither quail nor land- 

 rail visit Suffolk in any number ; while woodcock, 

 if not rare visitors, do not stop long on their 

 way to the west coast. Except by the seaside 

 there is also little broken land left for snipe. 



In 1900 sixteen or seventeen great bustards, 1 

 imported from Spain, were turned out upon 

 the large barren ' breck ' lands of north-west 

 Suffolk, and every care taken to guard them. 

 It was hoped that they would thrive and multiply 

 as in the days of old when, according to 

 Mr. Henry Stevenson, the great bustard was 

 extremely common in the county. 



The earliest mention of great bustard in 

 Suffolk is found in the Household Books of the 

 L'Estranges of Hunstanton ; the volume for the 

 year 1527 contains the following entry : 'The 

 xljst weke.' . . . ' Wedynsday. Itm viij malards, 

 a bustard, and j ' . . . ' hernsewe kylled wt ye cros- 

 bowe.' And again, in the year 1530 amongst 

 the list of gratuities : ' Itm in reward the xxvth 

 day of July to Baxters ' . . . ' sarvent of Stan- 

 newgh for bryngyng of ij yong ' . . . * bustards ijd.' 



In 1825 these birds still bred in the open parts 

 of the county round Thetford, though they were 

 yearly becoming scarcer. 



The most reliable information is that collected 



1 See also article on ' Birds,' V.C.H. Suffolk. 



by Mr. Henry Stevenson, according to whom, 

 during the last hundred years, the history of the 

 bustard is as follows : The open country round 

 Swaffham and near Thetford formed each the 

 head quarters of a ' drove,' for so an assemblage 

 of these birds was locally called. The Swaffham 

 tract, a long narrow range, chiefly lying in the 

 'breck' district bounded on the east by the 

 enclosed part of the country and on the west by 

 the fens, extended probably from Heacham in the 

 north to Cranwich in the south, if indeed it did 

 not reach by way of Mundford and Weeting to 

 the Wangford and Lakenheath uplands, which 

 are strictly part of the Thetford or Stow tract. 

 In this Swaftham tract the drove formerly con- 

 sisted of at least twenty-seven birds ; it subse- 

 quently decreased from twenty-three or twenty- 

 two to seventeen or sixteen, then to eleven, and 

 finally dwindled to five and two ; all accounts 

 agreeing in this that the last remaining birds 

 were hens. The hen bustard nearly always laid 

 her eggs in the winter-sown corn, which in 

 former days was without exception rye sown 

 broadcast after the old fashion. As the mode of 

 tillage improved, wheat was gradually substituted 

 for rye, and the drill and horse-hoe came into 

 use. After children had weeded the fields, 

 speedier if not more thorough weeding was 

 accomplished by the horse-hoe. Thus every 

 nest made by a bustard in a wheat field was sure 

 to be discovered perhaps in time to avert destruc- 

 tion from the horses' feet or the hoe blades. 

 When found the eggs were generally taken up 

 by the driver of the hoe (in defiance of the Act 

 of 25 Henry VIII which, though often enforced 

 when smaller and less valuable species were con- 

 cerned, seems in the case of the bustard to have 

 been a dead letter), and if not chilled by the 

 time they reached the farm-house were probably 

 put under a sitting hen. The latest authenticated 

 nest from the old English stock is recorded from 

 Thetford Warren in 1832; and the last birds 

 were killed in 1838, 1843, and 1845. Though 

 protection was accorded to this bird by some 

 proprietors (the Duke of Grafton at Euston, 

 Mr. Newton at Elveden, and Messrs. Gwilt at 

 Icklingham), others permitted their persecution. 

 George Turner, formerly a gamekeeper at 

 Wretham, was suffered by the late Sir Robert 

 Buxton, Lord Cornwallis (the latter owning the 

 Culford estate, in which was included North 

 Stow Heath, already spoken of as the ' head 

 place ' for these birds) and others, not only to go 

 in quest of them with a swivel gun, mounted on 

 a wheelbarrow screened with boughs, a parch- 

 ment stalking horse, or similar device, but even 

 to construct masked batteries of large duck guns, 

 placed so as to concentrate their fire upon a spot 

 strewed with turnips ; and there is no question 

 that he thus killed a very considerable number. 

 The triggers of the guns were attached to a cord 

 perhaps half a mile long, and the shepherds and 

 other farm labourers on the ground were instructed 



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