142 
NORFOL K. 
to travel on foot as well as turkeys; and prodigious num¬ 
bers of them are fent annually to London from the neigh¬ 
bourhood of Downham, Wilbeach, and Lynn. The 
drivingof tliefe to market commences about the beginning 
ot Auguft, when, the harveft being generally houfed, the 
Hubbles furnilh provifion on the road, where they feed 
during the night. Turkey-polts, goflings, chickens, &c. 
ufed to be conveyed by light caravans; but now they are 
principally fent by the ftage-coaches. 
Of fuch animals as are ferce natures, the rabbit claims 
the precedence, becaufe it is made an objefl of trade to 
a confiderable extent in this county. Thefe profitable 
little animals are here extremely numerous; occafioned 
not only by their natural fecundity, which is proverbial, 
but alfo by the congeniality of the foil with their peculiar 
habits. So prolific are they, that it is with difficulty, in 
fome places, that they are kept from increafing to an 
alarming extent, as anciently they did, according to Pliny, 
in the Balearic ifles : numbers breed about Caftle Riling, 
Thetford, Winterton, and Sherringham ; but Metlnvold- 
lieath is a celebrated place for the fineit and beft flavoured. 
This fpot was noticed as a rabbit-warren fo early as the 
reign of king Canute, A. D. 1016. 
What is denominated game is very plentiful in this 
county. Hares, pheafants, and partridges, are very abun¬ 
dant, and are protefted with great jealoufy and care by 
the noblemen and gentlemen of Norfolk. Thefe are 
noted fportfmen ; and, where fo much game prevails, 
there are alfo many poachers. Hence profecutions on 
the game-laws are very frequent in this county. 
The meers and marfhes of Norfolk are alfo much fre¬ 
quented by woodcocks, widgeon, teal, ducks, and other 
aquatic fowl. But, among the curious birds either re- 
fidents or occafional vifitors of Norfolk, that which moft 
deferves notice, becaufe nowalmoft become a total ftranger 
to the ifland, is the Otis tardi, or great buffard. It is 
the largelf of the Britifh land-fowl; the male bird on an 
average weighing, according to Pennant, twenty-five 
pounds, and expands his wings nine feet in breadth ; his 
length is about four. He ufually inhabits the heath- 
lands and moors. They appear occafionally to the north¬ 
ward, in the wold of Yorkshire, and foutlnvard on Salif- 
bury Plain in Wiltfhire, and on the down of Dorfetfhire. 
Some are found on the weftern fide of this county. They 
are very fhy birds, avoiding the haunts of men; and, 
though powerful on the wing, they feldom fly far without 
retting, and are never known to wander above twenty or 
thirty miles from the fpot where they were firft fledged. 
That fingular and proteus-like fpecies of the fand-piper, 
the Tringa pugnax, is found in this county. The males 
are called niffs, and the female reeves; both are diftin- 
guiflied by a tuft of feathers on the back of their necks, 
by which they may be diferiminated from all other birds. 
Environed by a great extent of fea-coaft, abounding in 
rivers and dreams, accompanied by numerous broads and 
meers, Norfolk is well fupplied with frefh and falt-water 
fifh. The Bure, and its attendant broads, abound with 
various kinds; fuch as pike, tench, trout, perch, &c, 
The latter are indeed fo plentiful at times, that the in¬ 
habitants at Ranworth report they have witneflbd a 
hundred and twenty bufliels having been, by two nets, 
caught in one day. In the Yare, or in the Wenfum, is 
found a fingular fpecies of perch, the Perea cornua, called 
a ruffe; which Dr. Caius has Latinized into afpredo. It 
is fmaller and more flender than the common perch, and 
feldom exceeds fix inches in length. Two great pifeatory 
concerns are carried on along the coalt and the fand- 
banks in the North Sea, the mackerel and the herring 
fifheries. The mackerel, a gregarious and migratory fifh, 
appear in vafl fhoals on this coaft in the fpring and fum- 
mer, and during the feafon furnifh an abundant fupply of 
food to the inhabitants, &c. at a very moderate expenfe. 
But the herring-fiftiery is the mod important and moll 
profitable purfuit. It commences in September, and con¬ 
tinues about three months ; at which time vafl quantities 
are caught, cured by pickling or drying, and exported to 
diflant places See the article Fishery, vol. vii. p.413-15. 
Few parts of the kingdom are fo devoid of l'ubterraneous 
treafures as Norfolk. No mineral or foffil fubflances have 
been found fufficient to excite a mining fpirit; no veins 
of that invaluable fubftance, coal; nor any extent of flra- 
tification of ufeful flone. The fub-flrata of the county, 
as far as refearches have difeovered, confifl of clunch, 
chalk in which flints are imbedded, gault, gravel, fand, 
flit, and peat-earth. On Moufehold-heath, and in fome 
other places, there is an expanfive fub-flratum of clunch, 
or indurated chalk, which is ufed for walls, and burnt 
for lime. It appears to have been formerly applied in 
buildings, particularly for coignes, mullions, and tracery 
of windows; and for fepulchral ornaments, and other 
works of fculpture, anteriorto the general ufe of alabafler 
and marble. The chalk-pits in the vicinity of Norwich 
abound with thofe large beautiful black flints which com¬ 
pote the walls of many buildings in that city; and the 
deep pits on Moufehold-heath are probably the places 
whence they were dug. In the gault, or argillaceous 
ftrata, has been found a clay which manufactures into an 
excellent kind of earthen-ware. Brick-clay abounds in 
various places, and, with fand, forms bricks of equal 
quality to thofe made in the neighbourhood of the me¬ 
tropolis. The flit, or fea-fand, finely pulverized, which 
is found at various depths, is ufed for repairing the roads. 
Through the whole of the fen-lands, the peat-earth fur- 
nilhes the poor people with an abundant fupply of fuel. 
On the lhore near Thornham, at low water, is the ap¬ 
pearance of a large foreft having been at fome period in¬ 
terred and fwallowed up by the waves. Stools of numerous 
large timber-trees, and many trunks, are to be feen; but 
fo rotten, that they may be penetrated by the fpade. 
Thefe lie in a black mafs of vegetable fibres, confining 
of decayed branches, leaves, ruflies, flags, &c. The ex¬ 
tent of this once-fylvan traCl mult have been great, from 
what is difcoverable; and at high water, now covered by 
the tides, is in one fpot from five to fix hundred acres. 
No hint of the manner or the time in which this fub- 
merfion happened can be traced. Nothing like a bog is 
ooze, and the whole beach befides is compofed of a fine 
near; or marine clay. On the other hand, we can bring 
an inftance, equally remarkable, where the land has 
gained on the fea, or rather where the fea has receded 
from the land. On the eallern coafl of this county, 
where, upwards of feventeen centuries ago, (A.D. 45,) 
the Roman fail brought the invaders to the Icenian fliore, 
and where their fliips rode at anchor, now Hands the 
town of Great Yarmouth, containing about 18,000 in¬ 
habitants ! The flat country, for feveral miles behind 
the town, evidently appears to have been anciently part 
of the bed of the ocean, and in fome places, which now 
confifl of marflies, pieces of anchors, large iron rings, and 
other fhip-implements, have frequently been found ; par¬ 
ticularly near the rife of land on which flood the once- 
famous Roman garrifon Garianonum, founded, in the time 
of Claudius, by the Roman commander Publius Oftorius 
Scapula, about the year 50; the ruins of which (now 
called Burgh Caftle) are Hill to be feen in good prefer- 
vation ; and there is no doubt the city of Norwich, and 
the caftle of Bungay, (both now about twenty miles from 
the coaft,) were anciently waftied by that part of the ocean 
afterwards called Hierus Fiuvius. The fea is confidered 
to have retreated from this place in the time of Edward 
the Confeflor; and this is corroborated by an ancient 
map of Garienfis Oftium, as it is fuppofed to have appeared 
in the year 1000, in which, where Yarmouth now {lands, 
was.only a fand: to ufe the words of the map, “ a fande 
in the mayne fea at that tyme.” This map is Hill pre- 
ferved in the hutch, or cheft, belonging to the corporation 
of the town. As the fea continued to recede from this 
land, fifliermen began to build huts ; and, as it was ex¬ 
cellently fituated for the purpofe of fifliing, the huts and 
buildings increafed with the increafing land 5 and fuch 
power 
