My Last Day in the Fen, 247. 



I should ever see him again I much doubted ; but that the old 

 place should ever be drained, and a railway carried into the heart of 

 the fen, was past my belief. The old duck-man has long since 

 been gathered to his fathers, and it is possible even that the " Old 

 Cross Guns" or "Dog and Doublet," has been whitewashed up and 

 shines forth in cockneyiied array as the '*■ Railway Hotel." 



It is now so long since I set a foot on the fen that I hardly know 

 what changes have been effected in this region by the march of 

 improvement and cultivation j but I will proceed to make a few 

 remarks on this district as it was in my day ; and I suppose even 

 now something remains to remind us of what was once the true 

 fen. And although a railway whistle is now heard in districts 

 where twenty years back the wild cry of the curlew was borne 

 over the breezy wold, and corn now waves on the site of Whittlesea 

 Mere, there must, I suppose, be still an odd corner or two which 

 will yet hold a snipe, and localities even now where the bearded tit 

 and swallow-tail butterfly are still to be met with. I know no 

 district in England so favourable to the pursuits of the shooter as 

 this used to be. If we seek the wild moorlands of Scotland, or 

 our more northern counties, we shall perhaps enjoy better and more 

 exciting sport -, and in the well-preserved stubbles and coverts of 

 midland and southern England we can always make sure of a 

 heavier bag than in the fen. But if, as the old song has it, " 'Tis 

 variety gives constant life to the chase," a day in the fen is worth a 

 dozen in the inclosures 3 and the man who happily combines the 

 naturalist with the sportsman, and thinks the face of nature never 

 looks so bright as when in her own original dress, rude as tliat dress 

 may be, will testify to the pleasure which he has experienced whenever 

 he falls in with a district isolated as it were from the rest of the 

 world, and where he can follow his favourite pursuits alone and 

 unmolested. I suppose it is the force of early association, but I 

 well know, as regards myself, that in every foreign country which 

 I have traversed since I left England, I cared little for the well- 

 stocked districts, but have always felt the greatest delight when 



