SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 185 
of about seventy acres. How far this historic Gullery goes 
back is not known, but it may well date to the thirteenth or 
fourteenth century. At that pericd the manor of Burdeloss- 
cum-Scoulton was held by its occupier for the service of 
being a chief ‘“lardiner”’ (or larderer) to the King, and 
Stevenson plausibly suggests that the ‘“service”’ in this 
instance may have been the rendering of young Gulls in their 
season.* Some may think this far-fetched, but we know that 
from early times young Gulls were considered a delicacy, and 
further we learn from Sir Thomas Browne that in the seven- 
teenth century they were sent to London from Scoulton mere, 
a practice which may have been going on a long time. The 
name of the parish, Scoulton, however, is in no way connected 
with the Gulls, being from the old Nerse Skule, which means 
a shelter, or place of refuge.f Scoulton Mere as faras is known 
has never dried up, and there is no record of the Gulls having 
forsaken it, even for a year. 
2. Sir Thomas Browne also mentions another Gullery 
on Horsey Broad, which is much nearer the sea. Writing 
about 1662, he tells his unknown correspondent{ that there 
were at that time “ puets in such plentie about Horsey that 
they [t.e., the country folk] sometimes bring them in carts to 
Norwich, and sell them at small rates.””’ These two Gulleries, 
Scoulton and Horsey, are among the oldest of which naturalists 
have any record in England, but that at Horsey is deserted, 
the Gulls having shifted to another Broad.§ 
3. Yet of equal antiquity were the two important 
Gulleries in Essex and Staffordshire, the former near Harwich, 
the latter—one of the most inland known—at Norbury. Of 
the one in Essex there is an excellent description in that curious 
old volume, Thomas Fuller’s ‘‘ Worthies of England,’’|| which 
has been often quoted, and it is from this source that the 
references by Merrett and Charleton to the settlement are 
borrowed. Samuel Dale, when writing his History of Harwich, 
* “ Norwich Naturalists’ Trans.,’’ Vol. I., 1871-2, p. 25, 
+ Munford’s ‘‘ Derivation of the Names of Towns and Villages,” p. 182. 
t Possibly Sir Nicholas Bacon. \ 
§ They were breeding there as recently as 1816. (Norwich Nat. Trans., 
III., 243.) 
| 1662, p, 317, 
