A PEW WORDS ON FEN-LAND. 205 



Pishey Thompson, in his 'History of Boston' (1856, p. 644, family 

 edition), has a quaint illustration of " fen slodgers," with their goose-hooks 

 over their shoulders, returning from a tramp. 



The days are much changed since a man could squat on some out-of- 

 the-way part, and run up a hut *, perhaps catch a few wild Geese and turn 

 them into tame f , then feed his flock at free quarters, living on fish and wild 

 birds dressed by a peat fire. Rates and taxes he looked upon, as William 

 of Deloraine did prayers and penances : 



" Penance^ father, mil I none ; 

 Prayer know I hardly one ; 

 For mass or prayer can I rarely tarry, 

 Save to patter an Ave Mary." 



Lay of the Last Minstrel. 



In short, he lived a kind of semi-savage life, not without its attractions. 

 He had an endless supply; for Dugdale says of Ramsey Mere ('Imbanking,' 

 p. 364) :— " Though both fishers and fowlers cease neither day nor night to 

 haunt it, yet there is always of fish and fowl no little store." 



To this kind of individual succeeded the class of which " old Merry " is 

 a good type. 



According to the account in Daniel's 'Rural Sports,' "old Merry, of 

 Stretham Ferry " had the utmost knowledge of the haunts of the species of 



* Creamer's hut (now called Brampton hut) , Huntingdonshire, a great meet of the Fitzwilliam 

 hounds, and Kisby's hut, near Papworth, a famous meet of the Cambridgeshire pack ; also Kate's 

 Cabin, near Norman Cross, about seven miles from Peterborough, a meet of the former pack. Who 

 Creamer was, and the pedigree of Kisby, are things now lost in obscurity, like that misty and 

 mysterious mother, Mrs. Carey. Kate selected a good situation on Ermine Street for herself (?). 



t Such a flock is mentioned by Mr. Robert Gray (' Birds of the West of Scotland,' p. 340), 

 in Long Island (1867), on the farm of Mr. John Macdonald Newton : — "There were about thirty 

 birds in it ; and they had all been hatched from eggs taken on the moors." These were semi- 

 domesticated Grey-lag Geese. 



