410 SCOULTON MERE, NOEEOLK, AND 



begun in 1512, with others, were "SeeguUes among the delecacies for 

 principal feasts or his Lordship's own mees/' They were sold at Id. 

 or lid. According to Pennant these were Black-headed Gulls. 



At Scoulton the water can be let off, and there is a fresh supply which 

 runs into the mere, into which the American weed has unfortunately 

 entered. 



Two foxes lately got onto the hearth, making great havoc ; and the day 

 w^e were there a stoat was caught in the bed of rhododendrons, some 

 of which are more than twelve feet high. About seven years ago an 

 Osprey arrived, and w^as shot. 



The greatest depth of this water, which is two miles round, is about 

 five feet. It is much the same in all others ; it was so in the finest of 

 them all, Whittlesea Mere, Huntingdonshire. 



The Rev. Richard Lubbock says Q Fauna of Norfolk,' p. 49) : — 

 " The shallowness of the pools of Norfolk is remarkable. Hickling Broad, 

 which contains more than 400 acres of water, is, unless in a few parti- 

 cular spots, not above four feet and a half in depth ; indeed, in the 

 middle of summer, when a regatta takes place there, it requires care to 

 prevent a large pleasure-boat from running aground in some parts of 

 the open water. This shallowness is in favour of fish and fowl. On 

 the continent, where they reduce fish-ponds to a complete system, they 

 do not think more than five feet of water desirable ; and to all water- 

 fowl shallows are preferable : water-weeds grow more abundantly, and are 

 more immediately within their reach." 



It will be seen in one of the lithographs, with rain descending, that 

 the Gulls are sitting upon trees and bushes. This is just as we observed 

 them in many instances; and it may be a subject of speculation if a practice 

 of this kind, continued for many generations at Scoulton, would alter in any 

 degree the form of the foot. 



