A FEW WORDS ON FEN-LAND. 215 



great North road in the pre-railway era. They were hung round with 

 Turkeys and Geese to such a degree that you could hardly look out of the 

 window or into it. 



So common in former days were droves of Geese on the road, that, when 

 the parishes were inclosed, small strips of ground were left at the side as 

 " Goose greens," on the principle of Arabian hospitality — a sort of religious 

 duty. 



Mr. W. T. Lighton, of Frampton, informs me that a small parcel 

 of pasture-ground, now a plantation, with one or two ponds in it, called 

 " Grey-Goose fleet," near Frampton Church, Lincolnshire, was believed to 

 have been formerly "a refuge" for Geese on their journeys to and from 

 Frampton marshes. 



In Norfolk, I am told, the same custom prevailed. 



In Mogg's map of the neighbourhood of London, at the fourth milestone 

 on the Camberwell Road, at the left hand, turning to Peckham Rye, appears 

 a green plot, marked " Goose Green." 



In the parish of Leake, Lincolnshire, I have myself seen such a bit of 

 ground by the roadside, now taken in ; but I am not sure that it was a 

 goose-green, though it looked like one. 



The Goose, in fact, ruled all things ; the French even called the mark 

 near the eye of fading beauty, by us known as the " crow's foot," patte d'oie 

 ("goose-foot"). 



In Fen-land, or close upon it, all things are fenny. Thus, in the local 

 press, at this time we read at Huntingdon of a man stealing " a glaive," or 

 eel-spear ; at Boston a boy shoots himself while " tenting birds ;" at Lincoln 



VOL. III. 2 1 



