2 WILD LI-FE ON A NORFOLK ESTUARY 



i> * ^T * ^ *, fl* 1 J > 



lapped by 't'Ke s'ea-waves are seen extending beyond Brad- 

 well to Burgh Castle, where we lose their outlines in a leafy 

 screen of trees and herbage. 



In the course of time an accumulation of alternate layers of 

 moor and silt gradually pushed back the waters from this 

 great alluvial flat, and the drift sand from the eastward helped 

 in this direction. It is said that about the time of Edward 

 the Confessor, the sea retreated from the sand at the mouth 

 of the estuary on which Yarmouth now stands. 



"And then there were two channelles for shippes and 

 fishermen to passe and enter into that arme of the sea for 

 utterance of their fishe and marchendizes, which were con- 

 veyed to diverse partes and places, as well in the countye of 

 Norfolke as in the countye of Suffolke, by reason that all the 

 wholle levell of the marshes and fennes, which now are 

 betwixte Yermouthe and the citie of Norwiche, were then all 

 an arme of the sea, enteringe within the lande by the mouth 

 of Hierus; and this was about the yere of our Saviour MXL 

 and longe before." l 



An ancient book, which had made use of this much older 

 quotation, very concisely disposes of any further "processes" 

 by remarking : " When this sand became inhabitable, and a 

 considerable town formed upon its banks, the course of the 

 sea being altered, the rivers and marshes settled in the manner 

 we now find them." 



One loves at leisure to linger over the ancient and fascina- 

 ting records of " Old Yarmouth," and follow its vicissitudes ; 

 also to conjure up in the mind pictures of the slow but 

 certain processes of Nature which must have built up its 

 foundations from the sea; and, unfortunately, it is to the 

 latter one must turn in accounting for Breydon in the form 

 we see it to-day, for it seems vain to dig into these old tomes 

 for satisfactory data. But one thing is certain, that but for 

 the " walls," or banks, enclosing the rivers and Breydon, a few 

 big tides would very speedily turn the lowlands into another 

 although more restricted Garienis Ostium ; and great would 

 be the joy of those who delight to wait on wild-fowl, which 

 would, with a return of the ancient conditions, again flock to 

 the watery wastes. But this will not happen, until the sea 



1 MS. cui Tit. " Create Yarmouth: a Bookeof the foundacion and antiquitye 

 of the sayde Towne," &c., fo. 1560. 



