MR. W. G. CLARKE ON BRECKLAND CHARACTERISTICS. 561 
by the ‘ Memoirs of a Royal Chaplain.’ On September iqth, 
1735, Charles Kidman, maternal uncle of the Rev. Dr. Samuel 
Kerrich, rector of Dtrsingham, drove from that place to 
Banham. He afterwards wrote : “ At half an hour after 4 
we proceeded in our journey from thence (Watton). taking 
a guide to Shropham. Then we took directions, but failed 
in observing them and wandered upon Snetterton Heath 
for an hour or two, and then went to Wilby instead of Eccles, 
where we were at a great loss where we were, and continued 
so till Harry took out one of ye horses in ye quest of some 
house, who after half an hour lighted upon Mr. Hare’s, who 
sent his man with a Lanthorn and Horse to direct us hither.” 
In August, 1754. Dr. Kerrich left Dersingham on a visit 
to Cambridge going by way of Swaffham and Newmarket. 
He had to leave Swaffham at 5 a.m. on account of crossing 
“ the horrible Brandon sands” in the cool of the day. to avoid 
distressing the horses. These heaths it may be mentioned 
in passing, were a resort of highwaymen, from the parson of 
Wretham who was caught at his malpractices earlv in the 
15th century, those who robbed Augustus Briggs. M.P., in 
ibbq, the murderers of Bryant Lewis — whose tragical epitaph 
is in St. George Colegate Church, Norwich — in ibq8, to the 
one who about 1800 endeavoured to overawe Mr. Mottram of 
Gurney’s Bank, who was taking some gold across Thetford 
Heath, was shot dead, and found to be armed with a brass 
candlestick. 
A number of witnesses give evidence as to the nature of 
the country at the end of the 18th century. Mr. Arthur 
Young estimated that 220 square miles of Norfolk consisted 
of light sand and 420 miles of good sand, much of the former 
being in the south-western portion of the county. Kent in 
his ‘ General View of the Agriculture of Norfolk ’ (1796), 
says that the Hundreds of Shropham, Guiltcross. Wayland. 
South Greenhoe. and Grimshoe, “ consist of a light sand, so 
light indeed in Grimshoe Hundred that it frequently drifts 
in the wind and is bare of vegetation,” and in 1797. Mr. 
William Kirby. M.A.. F.R.S., the entomologist, said. “ The 
country here affords few or no objects to relieve the mind from 
