128 
NATURE NOTES. 
Next to the church in age or interest is Broyle Place, now 
a farm-house, formerly, in pre- Reformation times, in the posses- 
sion of the Archbishops of Canterbury. It dates from very early 
times, but presents little appearance on its outside of such 
antiquity. In one of the rooms, panelled to the ceiling, is some 
carving above the fireplace of three Normanesque arches over 
flat fluted columns, a style largely affected by Elizabethan 
craftsmen. But here, too, the Philistine has been at work, all 
this carving and panelling being covered over with that hideous 
yellow paint and grain so dear to the eye — and cheap to the 
pocket — of the modern Goth. In olden days this house was 
surrounded by a park of i,6oo acres, well-wooded, and contain- 
ing a large herd of deer. At one of the boundaries of the parish, 
in this park, once stood an ancient tree named “ Tom’s oak,” 
which, when the parson and other parochial officials beat the 
bounds, was marked with the sign of the Cross. 
As to the natural history of Ringnier, White, in his letters, 
writes but briefly. He speaks of the rookery which then, as 
now, existed in the tall trees around Delves House where he 
was then staying. He describes this district as affording several 
kinds of birds not generally seen at Selborne ; of these, however, 
he only particularises the crossbills, which, he says, frequented 
the pine groves around Delves House. These are, indeed, rare 
birds and worthy of special notice, with their beautiful crimson 
plumage and curious crossed beaks. What the other birds were 
which White had in mind when writing thus, we may conclude 
from their absence from his lists of Selborne birds. One of 
these is the butcher-bird or red-backed shrike, quite a common 
bird about Ringmer. Its victims, in the shape of bees, beetles 
and small birds, may be found in the hedgerows impaled on 
thorns ; as the former are generally intact, there is reason to 
believe that they are placed there only as baits or attractions 
for the smaller birds on which the shrike preys, such as robins, 
chiffchaffs and other warblers. Another bird wffiich White may 
have noticed here, but which is not included in his Selborne lists, 
is the turtle-dove, a migratory pigeon of beautiful plumage which 
frequents the bean and pea fields and the breadths of cornlands 
in flocks of ten or twenty. But there are two birds more 
especially associated with Gilbert White, namely, the grass- 
hopper warbler and the chiffchaff. The former of these was first 
discovered by White, and though somewhat rare, its curious 
rattling note may be heard every spring by an attentive observer. 
The chiffchaff, the smallest of the warblers and the first arrival 
in the spring, was, if not discovered, at least first separated from 
its near relations, the willow and wood warblers, b}^ White, and 
it is noteworthy that hereabouts its notes are the earliest heard 
in spring, the most continuous in summer, and prolonged the 
farthest into autumn around the house where Gilbert White was 
so often a visitor. 
But these few notices of White at Ringmer would be incom- 
