FEN VEBSUS MARSH. 443 



and Mautby were celebrated Duck Decoys, now no longer worked, 

 and earlier still the Cormorants nested at Beedham. 



11 How changed is all this in the present day ! From Acle to 

 Yarmouth an excellent road runs straight across the marshes, 

 whilst a railroad takes much the same course ; and a second line 

 of railway follows very nearly the same route as the old riverside 

 track I spoke of earlier. Large sums are expended annually on 

 drainage, and all through the summer, and often far into the 

 autumn, the flat rich marshes are dotted over with cattle and 

 sheep innumerable, luxuriating in the rich herbage." 



From an ethnological point of view the men of North and 

 East Norfolk are a vastly superior race to the mixed inhabitants 

 of the Fens; they are silent, and, as might be expected from 

 their lonely life on the sea or in the solitude of the marshes, 

 very superstitious ; but they are honest, brave as lions, quarrel- 

 some over their cups like their Viking progenitors, but otherwise 

 gentle as lambs. Not easy of approach, but once their confidence 

 gained they are full of information, and with an abundance of 

 ready wit expressed in a dialect peculiar to themselves. Many a 

 time have I looked with admiration on these stalwart giants, and 

 been struck with the easy grace of their bearing, their finely-cut 

 features, crisp, curly, tawny-coloured hair and beards, the picture 

 of manly beauty— the stuff that our Shovells, Minns, and Nelsons 

 are made of — but such as are never bred in the " Fens." 



