524 
president’s address. 
the Stoat, as well as for the mention of the Black variety of the 
Rabbit, which Sir John Paston was evidently desirous of intro- 
ducing into his park at Oxnead. There is also a very early 
mention of Black Rabbits (although eighty years later than that 
just quoted) in the ‘Household Book’ of Thomas Kytson (see 
‘ Gaye’s History and Antiquities of Hengrave,’ p. 190), where, 
under date of October, 1573, occurs the following entry : “ For 
baiting my Mr. his horse at Brandon, &c. . . . For vj. Black 
Coney skins, to fur my Mrs. night gown iiijs, iiij d,” which 
indicates that the fur of these animals was of considerable value 
even in the sixteenth century. It seems doubtful whether these 
Black Rabbits were identical with the Silver Greys found in the 
same neighbourhood in the present day, for a note in Salmon’s Diary, 
dated 7th March, 1837, seems to indicate that the latter were of 
recent introduction, he says: “Walked across the Warren [Thetford] 
to see Mr. Gardiner’s new stock of rabbits, they came from 
Lincolnshire, and are of silver-blue colour, the fur is considered 
of more value than the common grey. I recollect seeing the same 
sort exposed for sale in Boston market, where they are considered 
as the common sort.” 
Very beautiful were these vast tracts of open land, varying in 
appearance as the soil varied ; here glorious masses of golden 
Gorse scented the air, or equally beautiful thickets of deeper tinted 
Broom lit up the landscape, intersected by oases of short sweet 
grass, redolent of wild Thyme, which the rabbits shared with the 
half-wild, long-legged Norfolk sheep. There, as far as the eye 
could penetrate, stretched rolling hills purple with blooming 
Heather, set off by the ruddy bronze of the autumn-tinted Ferns, 
backed by the dark pine woods, and flecked with the shadows of 
the passing clouds — in the damp valleys, Cranberries trailed over 
the green Sphagnum and thickets of Bog Myrtle sent their clouds 
of yellow pollen into the air, which was alive with the wild cry of 
the Redshank, the bleating of the Snipe, or the complaint of the 
Lapwing, as it strove to decoy the intruder to a safer distance 
from its downy little ones. Overall beat the Harrier, seeking food 
for its sitting mate or callow young. 
