IN 80UTH-WESTERX NORFOLK. 
5G1 
on the subject to those who happened to be present, in the Bird- 
room of the Museum of Zoology there, and our President has 
intimated to me that a fuller statement of the remarks 1 then 
made might be acceptable to the Society, if offered in a more formal 
way, and adapted for publication in its ‘ Transactions.’ 
The autumn of the year 1852 was one of the wettest that had 
been known for a long while, as I believe anybody may satisfy 
himself by referring to meteorological records. Here I will content 
myself with the statement which 1 obtained at the time from some 
oflicial report, that the water-level at Denver Sluice rose from 
13 feet 5 inches to 20 feet 1 inch, or upwards of six feet and a 
half ; but, indeed, all the rivers in the Eastern Counties were 
swollen to an unwonted height, a height that few, if any, of the 
oldest men remembered. In the week beginning on the 14th of 
November in that year, my brother Edward and 1 went to London 
to see the funeral of the great Duke of Wellington, and we well 
recollect the water being out on both sides of the line of railway 
for several miles. This flood however was, as we afterwards heard, 
of short duration, and caused, I rather think, by the temporary 
stoppage, through some accident to the machinery, of one of the 
local pumping-engines, on the repair of which, a few days after, the 
water was soon disposed of in the ordinary way. I only mention 
this fact as being one of the results of the extraordinary rainy season 
of which we were having experience, and it must be borne in mind 
that this flood, one I believe of many others, in various places, had 
no effect whatever upon that of which it is my special business to 
treat, though the latter began while the former was at its height. 
On the night of the 15th of November the right bank of the 
Little Ouse in the parish of Feltwell gave way, and a few days 
after the bank on the Lakenheath side also burst.* Through the 
breaches thus made the waters which had been so long accumulating 
rushed, Hooding immediately a large extent of country, and at the 
end of a week covering about 20,000 acres of land in Southerey, 
Methwold, Feltwell, Hockwold, Lakenheath, and Mildenhall Fens. 
* I did not at the time note the precise spots at which these breaches 
occurred, but Mr. Francis Newcome has kindly ascertained for mo that the 
first was about a quarter of a mile below the foot-bridge leading to the new 
Church, and close to the Anchor Inn ; while the second was about 200 yards 
above the Cross Water Stanch. 
