president’s address. 
637 
much intermarriage. Some lads “ follow the sea,” but since 
the introduction of steam trawlers, the fishing is not what 
it used to be. 
A good many young people from Ruston have emigrated, 
not to our colonies, but to the U.S.A., round about Medina, 
where there is a regular colony of Norfolk Broadlanders. 
When the Eastern and Midlands Railway first opened up 
this district, it used to be called the Goose and Donkey Line : 
but whether on account of the number of commons through 
which it passed between Lynn and Yarmouth, or on account 
of the simplicity of its local passengers, or the patience of 
its officials, history does not relate. The various railways 
must have brought coal very opportunely to many country 
districts where the local supply of wood on the one hand, 
and of peat on the other, was rapidly being exhausted ; and 
especially to those inland parishes which had no adjacent 
waterways for the conveyance and distribution of fuel. 
Ruston had its parish staithe on the river Ant before the 
present Dilham canal was constructed, but in spite of this, 
and the proximity of the parish to the coast, where (in the 
neighbouring parish of Walcot) much coal and other 
commodities used to be landed, the natural products 
of the common were at one time more absolutely necessary 
than they are now even useful, to its inhabitants. Not only 
did the rushes which grew there once form the wicks for the 
only candles then made, but they afforded also the primitive 
carpets of the clay-floored cottages, before they were paved 
with brick and strewn with sand. The Furze bushes pro- 
vided kindling for the peat fires, as well as material for 
effectually walling in the cattle sheds : and the upland turf 
supplied the place of the present day slates and tiles for 
roofing purposes — not only for outhouses (as some are used 
to-day), but they also were used in place of. or in addition 
to, the thatch covering of cottages. 
Let me now give you a short digest of the Bye-laws made 
