many of tlio deuudod fowls perislied. In Lord Orford’s ‘ Voyage 
round the Fens ’ (1774),* the writer mentions that, in passing over 
Deeping Common, in driving from Peterborough to Spalding, 
he passed large flocks of Geese which had recently been subjected to 
the inhuman custom of plucking for their down, and that their 
feathers were mostly bloody, and many were found dead near the 
road in consequence of this operation. The Geese were collected at 
the ]>roper season ; and, after being fattened, were driven in vast 
Hocks to the London market. Carts accompanied the flocks to 
pick up the “ lame Geese,” but upon the Avhole they did their daily 
march of ten miles in as many hours fairly well. Geese which had 
* This is a most disappointing book from a Naturalist’s point of view. 
I first became acquainted with it from a manuscript copy in the possession 
of Mr. Antliony TIamond of Westacre, but have since seen a printed copy 
entitled ‘A Voyage round tiie Fens,’ and published by Edwin Wliite, 
Picnch-gate, Doncaster (107 pp.), no date, but the introduction by 
J. W. Childers bears date Cantley, July, 18G8. The voyage was under- 
taken by George, third Earl of Orford, wlio is chiefly noteworthy from 
his having sold the fine collection of pictures made by his grandfatlier, -r 
the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, at Houghton Hall, to the Empre.s.s 
of Russia, with the fate of which we are all acquainted. Lord Orford, 
commanding a fleet of yachts, consisting of “ four sail of the line,” three 
“tenders,” one “Bumkitch,” and one “victualler,” left Lakenheath on 
I7th July, 1774, and, sailing through Lakenheath New Lode (“Straits 
of Martin”), entered the Little Ouse, thence on to Denver Sluice, through 
Salter’s Lode Dyke, and along the new Podike (?), by Nordelph, Outwell, 
and Upwell, to March. Then along the old Nene to Palmer’s Bridge 
(“Whore’s Nest”), five miles pa^t Ramsey Mere. Two miles farther on they 
entered M'hittlesea Dyke, and, passing through the Mere and Fas-set’s Sluice, 
the entrance to the old Nene river was reached ; thence by Fasset’s Bridge 
and Horsey Bridge they passed to Peterborough, and by Stanground Sluice 
into Morton’s Learn back to Whittlesea and Trundle Meres, and, “ through a 
very narrow channel enclosed with remarkably high weeds,” returned to 
Ramsey Mere. Thence back again by iMarch, &c., to “ High Bridge, Straits 
of Martin,” from whence they started, arriving on the 6th August, after a 
twenty-one days’ cruise. There are three separate accounts of^the voyage, 
first, by Mr. Thomas Roberts, volunteer on board the fleet; second, 1)y 
George Farrington, volunteer on board the fleet; and, third, “The Admiral’s 
Journal of the Voyage round the Fens,” by Lord Orford. As I have said, 
the amount of Natural History is singularly small ; there are some remarks 
on the appearance and manners of the inhabitants, mere particularly of 
the sex. ihe chief interest of the voyage is topographical, the 
yachts having .sailed through channels now closed, and across meres now 
under cultivation,— a course never to be repeated. 
