CHAPTER XIII 



THE SALT MARSHES OF SUFFOLK 



THE county of Suffolk cannot claim to possess 

 such extensive stretches of salt marsh as may 

 be met with on the coast of Norfolk, in the neighbour- 

 hood of Wells and Hunstanton. But here and there, 

 on the borders of the Orwell and the Deben, at Orford 

 and Aldeburgh, and near the mouth of the Blyth at 

 Walberswick, tracts of marshland may be seen, bearing 

 its own distinctive flora, the haunt of gulls and curlews, 

 and possessing that strange fascination associated with 

 these " moorlands of the sea." " A more desolate 

 region can scarce be conceived," wrote a master of 

 description with reference to these salt marshes, " and 

 yet it is not without its beauty. In summer the thrift 

 mantles the marshes with shot satin, passing through 

 all gradations of tint, from maiden's-blush to lily-white. 

 Thereafter a purple glow steals over the waste, as the 

 sea-lavender bursts into flower, and simultaneously 

 every creek and pool is royally fringed with sea-aster. 

 A little later the glasswort, that shot up green and 

 transparent as emerald glass in the early spring, turns 

 to every tinge of carmine." 



The salt marshes near Aldeburgh are frequently 

 alluded to by George Crabbe in his poems, and more 

 than once he gives a graphic description of their some- 

 what dreary scenery. In the " Letter " of The Borough, 



104 



