580 
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 
is evident that as early as the year 1487 the Swan-pit was a work- 
ing concern and it is probable that it came into existence as an 
appendage to the great religious houses, which were possessed of 
Swan rights, the Cygnets being taken up at the proper season, 
marked with their proprietors’ Cygninota and transferred to the 
Gygnorum to be fattened for the table. Of late years, the demand 
for these fatted Swans has fallen off, many of the former patrons 
having died and their places not having been filled by others ; the 
dish seems also to have been less favoured or perhaps neglected, 
and although the numbers sent in in the last two seasons were 
only fifty-seven and fifty-two respectively, the supply exceeded the 
demand and resulted in a serious loss to the master of the Hospital 
whose privilege it was to fatten them, this loss having occurred 
repeatedly of late he cannot be expected to bear. 
It is I believe under the consideration of the Trustees of the 
St. Helen’s Hospital whether some means can be devised for 
continuing this interesting relic of the past, and it is sincerely to 
be hoped that so lamentable an event as the extinction of the 
ancient Gygnorum may be averted. 
The illustration shows the Cygnets in the Swan-pit which is 
connected with the river, the rise and fall of which ensures 
a constant fresh supply of water ; the floating troughs near the 
wall which adjust themselves to the water level; also, near the 
attendant, the spouts by which the dry food is conveyed to the 
troughs. The high land in the back-ground is Mousehold Heath, 
the site of Kett’s rebel encampment in 1594, and now occupied by 
two large buildings the one being barracks for cavalry the other 
for infantry. The ancient circular building in the foreground is 
one of the towers which long since formed the defence of the river 
front of the city and is known as the Cow Tower. — T. Southwell. 
Marten Cats in Suffolk. — (Correction of an error). At p. 224, 
vol. ii., our ‘ Transactions ’ in a list of vermin killed on a Suffolk 
Manor in the year 1811, the number of Martens killed is given as 
forty-three. As this has been frequently quoted in evidence of 
the abundance of this animal so late as the year named (notably in 
the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1891, p. 455, for 1892, p. 20, and in the list of 
Norfolk Mammals in the ‘ Victoria History of the Counties,’ 
Norfolk, vol. i. p. 248), I take the present opportunity of correcting 
what is a very serious and misleading error. Having an opportunity 
of referring to a file of the ‘ Norwich Mercury,’ I find there published 
