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been frequently plucked, and old Ganders, were known as 
“Cagniags,” and had the reputation of being exceedingly tough and 
dry, — a reputation which was probably well desei’TCd, more especially 
if they had attained to anything like the natural limit of their 
existence, which is said to extend to a hundred years. A large 
flock of Geese filling the road is really a very pretty sight ; but 
in the present day it is rarely seen ; * the greatly diminished 
quantities of Geese now reared in Fen-land (owing to the inclosurc 
of common land and the decreased demand for quills and feathers) 
being sent to market ready dressed ; a few are still sent alive, but 
they travel by rail in crates. In the sketch of “ Fen Bill Hall ” 
already quoted, the writer gives his experiences as a “ Gozzard,” 
and mentions that his flock of brood Geese alone required three 
coombs (twelve bushels) of corn for their daily consumption. In 
the year 1774 a very wet harvest was experienced, and he tells us : 
“I had previously given from £6 to £8 per last (twenty-one 
coombs) for Goose corn; that winter I bought for £3. I had 
just so many brood Geese as took three coombs of oats per day 
for their maintenance” (part 2, p. 9). Another authority, quoted 
in Eowley’s ‘Miscellany,’ says that one thousand fatting Geese 
will consume five twelve-stone sacks of oats per night. 
Whilst rushing rapidly through the once impenetrable Fens, 
comfortably reclining in a luxuriously-appointed railway-train, it is 
difficult for the traveller to conceive of the obstacles which rendered 
locomotion all but impossible in days gone by. Even in summer, 
the soil was too soft to allow wheeled carriages to pass over it ; but 
when rendered spongy and boggy by rain or flood, it must — except 
in the few elevated spots which occurred, with vast interspaces of 
bog between them — have been altogether impassable. So long as the 
country was covered with a sheet of water, communication with the 
“ islands ” was easy enough, by means of the light boats used by 
the natives ; but when, in winter, ice formed thick enough to 
prevent the passage of boats, but not sufficiently strong to bear the 
* Flocks are occasionally seen passing through the streets of Norwich to a 
depot, at which some five thousand are annually fatted by Mr. Bagshaw ; but 
they are Dutch birds, just off a long voyage by sea and rail, and sadly 
draggled in appearance, presenting a great contrast to the vast flocks of clean 
smooth-plumaged birds the writer remembers to have seen in the streets of 
Spalding many years ago. 
