Norfolk Broads and Rivers, or the Water-ways, lagoons, and decoys of East Anglia ... With illustrations

Preface

. It is rather amusing to note the number of persons who, after a visit to the Broad District, send en thusiastic descriptions of their excursions to the ' Field,' ' Hunt's Yachting Magazine,' and other periodicals. The truth is that, to persons of a certain bent of mind, there is an engrossing charm in the lakes and rivers of East Anglia. No one knows better than the Author how strong this feeling is, and no one perhaps has been guilty of writing so much on the subject. This book, how ever, is positively his last appearance in the field of descriptive writing anent the Broads. There is no better " playground " in England, and certainly none easier of access or more cheaply to be enjoyed, than the Broad District. The pro fessional avocations of the Author do not allow him time for any extended holidays ; but wTith the aid

PREFACE.

. VI of a small yacht, short intervals of rest can be employed in the most agreeable manner, and with the minimum of expenditure. Part of the equipment of the yacht is a photographic camera, and the illustrations to this book are printed on copperplates direct from negatives taken (with one exception) by the Author, and etched by a process worked by Messrs T. & E. Annan. The negative of Pull's Ferry was lent by a professional friend. Some of the chapters in the book originally appeared in ' Blackwood's Magazine ' ; while part of the chapter on Wherries, " A Crusade against Poaching," and " Pike-fishing in Jordan," appeared in the ' Field ' ; " Rockland Broad " in the ' Gentle man's Magazine,' " Fritton Decoy " in the ' Art Journal,' and " On the Upper Yare " in the ' East Anglian Handbook.' The Author is indebted to the proprietors of the several periodicals named, for their courtesy in allowing him to republish such articles.

CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I. THE BROAD DISTRICT, ..... 1 II. TnE BIRD-LIFE OF THE BROADS, . . . 12 III. THE FISU OF THE BROADS, . . . . 18 IV. WHERRIES, ....... 24 V. THE CRUISE OF THE COYA OULTON TO YARMOUTH, 32 VI. THE CRUISE OF THE COYA THE HUNDRED STREAM, 39 VII. THE CRUISE OF THE COYA HORSEY MERE AND HICKLING AND BARTON BROADS, ... 48 VIII. THE CRUISE OF THE COYA — ON THE BURE, . 59 IX. YACHTS AND YACHTING, . . . . . 67 X. WROXHAM BROAD, . . . . . . 72 XI. WROXHAM BROAD IN WINTER, . . . . 78 XII. A WEEK-END AT SALHOUSE, .... 83 XIII. ANTINGHAM PONDS, 89 XIV. A MERRY CRUISE ON THE ANT AND THURNE, . 92 XV. THE MARSHES, . . . . . . . 98 XVI. ON THE UPPER YARE, . . 104 XVII. NORWICH TO COLDHAM HALL, . . . Ill XVIII. SURLINGHAM BROAD, . . . . . .116 CONTENTS. XIX. ROCKLAND BROAD, . . . . . .122 XX.

A SAIL ON A WHERRY COLDHAM HALL TO SOMERLEYTON, . . . . . .132 XXI. THE WAVENEY, . . . . . .138 XXII. FRITTON DECOY, . . . . . .144 XXIII. OULTON BROAD, . . . . . .156 XXIV. LAKE LOTHING, . . . . . .161 XXV. A WHITSUNTIDE CRUISE, . . . .166 XXVI. BREYDON WATER, . . . . . .176 XXVII. GREAT YARMOUTH, .-_ . . . .185 XXVIII. THE HERRING-FISHERY, 195 XXIX. SWANS, . . . . ... . . 200 XXX. THE OTTER, ....... 203 XXXI. ABOUT EELS, ...... 208 XXXII. EEL-SETS, ....... 220 XXXIII. SEA-BREACHES, ...... 229 XXXIV. FLOODS, SALT-TIDES, AND TEMPESTS, . . 234 XXXV. NATURAL PHENOMENA, ..... 238 XXXVI. A CRUSADE AGAINST POACHING, . . . 245 XXXVII. PIKE-FISHING IN JORDAN, . . . . 253 XXXVIII. ORMESBY, FILBY, AND ROLLESBY BROADS, . 259 XXXIX. THE MERRIEST CRUISE OF ALL, . . . 264 XL. A RUN DOWN THE COAST, . . . .

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 1. FRITTON DECOY, ..... Frontispiece 2. WHERRIES WAITING FOR THE TIDE AT CANTLEY, ..... To face page 24 3. HORNING VILLAGE, .... 64 4. SALHOUSE DYKE, .... 83 5. PULL'S FERRY, „ 112 6. ROCKLAND BROAD, .... ,,122 7. WHERRY ON THE YARE AT CANTLEY, . „ 134 8. INTERIOR OF DECOY-PIPE, . . . „ 144 9. CURVE OF DECOY-PIPE, ... „ 151 10. END OF DECOY-PIPE, .... ,,154 11. BREYDON WATER, .... 176 12. SWAN- PIT, ,,200 THE NORFOLK BROADS AND EIVEES. CHAPTEE I. THE BROAD DISTRICT. In the autumn and winter, the wild-fowl flying southward and westward in search of less rigorous climes are arrested by the projection of the Norfolk coast, and see beneath them, but a few miles inland, the gleaming sur face of lagoon and river, and vast expanses of reed-beds. If they flew all England over, they could find no spot so fit for them as this district of marsh and shallow, lake and reed ; so down they drop, and stay until the spring lures them back to their more northern breeding-places.

All do not return : the gun, the decoy, and the snare thin their ranks ; but many also, which have found the loneliest spots in this lonely region, are so fascinated that they stay to breed, and then the collector too often finds out their retreat. The smaller migrants, too, which visit us in the spring A for the purposes of breeding, are arrested by this obtrusive Norfolk ; so that it is a county favoured beyond others in an ornithological sense. It has been said that " all Eng land can be carved out of Norfolk," meaning that there is every variety of land and scenery (save mountains) within its borders. A triangular gap in it will represent the flat and watery Broad district, on its eastern side ; while the rest consists of hills, woods, enclosures, wide open commons and heaths, and rich corn and pasture lands.

Our present concern is with the Broad district. The term Broad is peculiar to Norfolk. Its etymology is obvious — namely, a broadening out of the rivers into lakes, the Broads being intimately connected with the rivers, which in some cases flow through them, and in others are only divided from them by a reed-bed. Whittlesea Mere and other parts of the Een district were the counterparts of the Broads in many respects ; but the character of the Fens has so much changed since their drainage, that it is to Norfolk only that one can now look for the wildness and solitude of marsh and mere so dear to the naturalist and sportsman. If you take the map and draw a line from Pakefield, on the Suffolk coast, 27 miles northwards to Happisburgh, and then across to Norwich, 18 miles inland, then -with a curve south-east hack to Pakefield, you will have a triangle which comprehends the chief of the Broads and rivers — a district for the most part as flat as a billiard table, where water and land striye for the mastery, and come to a delightful compromise.

This tract of country i3 intersected by three principal rivers, and dotted with a score of lakes. First, below Norwich (a city of nightingales, which are very numerous in its suburbs), BROADS AND RIVERS. 3 the smaller river Yare flows into the larger river Wensum, and then the united stream, under the name of the Yare, flows a sinuous course of 35 miles, until it debouches into the sea at Yarmouth. For all this distance the river is broad and deep, and in the lower half the tide ebbs and flows, " backing " up the water even as far as Norwich. The natural fall of the river is only four inches in the mile ; the rise and fall of the tide is very little. There are no locks, and only one bridge, which is a " swing " one, so that the Yare is the perfection of a navigable river. For five miles below Norwich the banks are hilly and wooded, but afterwards the water is bordered by tall reeds, and beyond the reeds are miles of marsh.

The only Broads on the upper part of the Yare are Surlingham and Eockland, both of limited extent ; or rather, the open water has been so reduced by the rapid growth of the reeds and aquatic vegetation, that these appear to be small. Just above Yarmouth is the magnificent tidal lake called Breydon. Eoughly speaking, it is five miles long by two-thirds of a mile wide ; and at high water, when the muds are covered, it forms a noble expanse of water — the deeper channel of the river through it being marked by painted posts to guide the vessels sailing across. At low water, the muds or flats on either side are dry, and attract myriads of wild-fowl, which find their food on the soft ooze, and in winter afford sport and sustenance to the gunner in his flat-bottomed punt. The river Waveney also enters in at the top of Breydon, and is navigable for seven-and-twenty miles southward and westward through Beccles to Bungay in a sinuous course.

The peculiarities of the Waveney are its depth — which is 20 feet close to the banks in places — and the surpassing clearness of its water. While sailing up it you may see, yards beneath you, the tops of waving weeds and shoals of frightened fish ; and the blue of its surface and the white of the waves which rise to the bows and eddy astern, are only paralleled by the blue and white in the sky above. A canal or cut of three miles in length connects the Yare at Eeedham with the Waveney at Haddiscoe. A mile and a half from the latter place is a beautiful sheet of water, two miles long, named Fritton Broad, which is interesting, inasmuch as there are two decoys upon it still worked by the pro prietors. A wide cut called Oulton Dyke connects the mid - length of the Waveney with Oulton Broad, 100 acres in extent, and the most civilised of all the Broads, inasmuch as it has a village on its banks and always a fleet of yachts on its surface.

At the lower end of the Broad is a lock which gives access to a tidal lake called Lake Lothing, two miles long ; then comes Lowestoft harbour and the sea. Eeturning to the lower end of Breydon Water, we find the mouth of the Bure, which flows from the north-west, and is navigable up to Aylsham, a distance of forty miles by river. It is up this fine river and its tributaries that the wildest and most interesting of the Broads lie. First, as we go up, is a sheet of water with many arms, known as Ormesby, Filby, and Eollesby Broads, containing to gether about 800 acres. These are not accessible from the main river, except by small boats, and along a dyke bearing the euphonious name of Muck Fleet. " Fleet " is a Norfolk word for shallow, — a fleet place is where there is but little water. A few miles higher up we MARSHES. 5 come to the Thurne, a broad river, which communicates with Hickling Broad, Whiteslea, Horsey Mere, Heigham Sounds, and Martham Broad.

Of these Hickling is the largest, covering some 400 acres. All the Broads are very shallow, but this is the shallowest, its depth not exceeding 4 feet 6 inches, except in the " channel." Its water is beautifully clear, and its bottom is of hard yellow gravel, over which shoals of fish scud away as one's boat approaches. All the other Broads have bottoms of black mud of an unknown depth, and so soft that a yacht's anchor will not hold in it, so that large blocks of iron ballast are used instead, which will not drag through the " putty," as the mud is locally called. Eeturning to the Bure, we come to the mouth of the river Ant, which leads to Barton Broad, 200 acres in extent, and to Stalham Broad. Again, returning to the course of the Bure, we come to a group of Broads — Walsham, Eanworth, Decoy Broad, Hoveton (Great and Little) Broads, Salhouse, and lastly, Wroxham — a large and very beautiful Broad, where regattas are frequently held.

Above Wroxham is Belaugh Broad. To sum up, there are here 200 miles of navigable rivers, and 5000 acres of water in the Broads. Many of the marshes around the group of Broads up the " north river," as the Bure is usually called, are left in their pristine wildness ; hut in the lower waters there is a very complete system of drainage. The river surface, as a rule, is much higher than the adjacent marshes, which, as the moisture was pumped out of their peaty and spongy soil, shrank and sank just as a sponge does in drying, until they left the river-level several feet above them. A low embankment on either side of the river coufines its waters, and at the outlets of the drains are pumps which lift the water out of them into the river. These pumps were all formerly, and many still are, worked by means of small wind mills ; and it is a curious sight, on looking over the wide marshes, to see the scores of windmills all twirl ing merrily round.

Steam is now used at the outlets of the more important drains, and does the work more effectually. Even now the water often gains the mas tery. It might be imagined that the scenery of such a flat and marshy country must be most uninteresting. Yet it is not so, except, perhaps, near the sea, where the vegetation is not so luxuriant as it is in the upper reaches. On either side of the river, and around the Broads, is a dense wall of emerald-green reeds, from seven to ten feet in height. Then come the yellow iris flowers, tall and bending rushes and bulrushes, the sweet-sedge, with its curious catkins ; tangled feathery grasses, in such variety that, as you stand up to your waist in them, you may pluck a dozen kinds without moving ; blue clusters of forget-me-nots, foxgloves, spikes of purple loose-strife, and broad tufts of valerian ; hushes of woody night-shade ; and, sweeter than all, masses upon masses, all the way along, of the cream-white and strong-scented meadow-sweet, — these are what make the immediate banks changing panoramas of kaleidoscopic beauty.

Then on the water, beneath the reeds and across shallow bays, and in the little "pulks" or miniature Broads, which everywhere open off the river, are lilies, yellow and white, in dazzling abundance. Here and there are tropical tangles of wood ; a picturesque house in a clus- COLOUR ON THE BROADS. 7 ter of trees, or a reed-stack floating on the river with a supporting wherry hidden somewhere beneath it. The far-reaching marsh has a beauty of its own, that of changing colour as the wind bows the many-tinted grasses and flowers, and the wind-waves and cloud shadows sweep along ; while everywhere are the snowy sails of yachts and the red-brown canvas of the wherries. The atmospheric effects, too, are unusually beautiful, and sunrises and sunsets glow with a warmth of colour that gives the placid lagoons an almost unearthly loveliness ; while, when the sun is set, the mists often show lakes and ships and islands that vanish with the dawn.

Colour is seen far away ; a group of red and white cattle, or the scarlet berries of the guelder rose entwined around some fallen willow, with a gleam of sunshine upon them, will lighten up niilejs of marsh. Then the flight of hawk and heron, snipe and wild-duck, the splash of fish, and the scattering rush of the small fry as a pike makes his raid upon them, are incidents of every hour. The marshes often present a curious sight. If the spectator is on the same level, scarcely any water may be visible, and the expanse of marsh may seem continuous ; yet here and there and everywhere are the sails of yachts and wherries gliding through it, their hulls invisible. The general appearance of the country reminds us strongly of a descriptive passage in Henry Havard's ' Picturesque Holland.' He says : — " We sailed in the direction of the Sneekermeer, and after following for fully half an hour the various bends of a broad canal, we suddenly came into the middle of this great lake — an immense extent of water, the limits of which were scarcely visible.

" That which gives to the inland seas of Friesland an appearance almost unique, is the uniform flatness of the shores, also the nature of the soil which constitutes the bottom. This in fact, formed by inexhaustible peat bogs, gives to the water a dark-violet colour, just like that of copying ink, the smallest ray of sun on the rip ples producing a golden tint positively magical. Near land this curious shade becomes more intense; in con trast with the tender green of the reed-beds, it becomes almost black. " As soon, however, as you leave the shore, the land, being so low, becomes almost imperceptible. One would imagine it a green cloak eternally floating on the face of the deep dark waters, without fixity or solidity. The clumps of trees perceptible in the distance, the houses which lose themselves in the grey mist, the church steeples with their varnished tiles shining in the morning fog, seem to rise up on the water and float on its surface.

Even those extensive plains covered with reeds, always moving and bending to the softest breeze, only add to the fantastic appearance of the watery shores. Pliny's astonishment is easily understood when seeing for the first time the curious landscapes, and his comparing their inhabitants to eternal navigators — navigantibus similes." The waters of these English meres, however, have not the peaty colour of the Friesland meres. The water is clear and pure, and where the hottom is gravelly, as it is all over Hickling and the Sounds and Horsey Mere, it is plainly visible. One constantly sees, generally moored in some creek, a large rough boat with a hut built upon it. These are the " OUR BROAD." 9 abodes of men who live by catching eels and other fish, and spend all the year round on the water.

The lives of these men are much the same as those of the " Broad Men " described by the Eev. Bichard Lubbock. " When I first visited the Broads, I found here and there an occupant ' squatted down,' as the Americans would call it, on the verge of a pool, who relied almost entirely on shooting and fishing for the support of his family, and lived in a truly primitive manner. I particularly remember one hero of this description. ' Our Broad,' as he always called the extensive pool by which his cottage stood, was his microcosm, his world — the islands in it were his gardens of the Hesperides, its oppo site extremity his Ultima Thule. Wherever his thoughts wandered, they could not get beyond the circle of his beloved lake ; indeed I never knew them aberrant hut once, when he informed me, with a doubting air, that he had sent his wife and his two eldest children to a fair, at a country village two miles off, that their ideas might expand by travel ; as he sagely observed, they had never been away from ' Our Broad.' I went into his house at the dinner-hour, and found the whole partly going to fall to, most thankfully, upon a roasted herring-gull — killed, of course, on ' Our Broad.' His life presented no vicissi tudes but an alteration of marsh employment.

In winter, after his day's reed-cutting, he might be found posted at nightfall waiting for the flight of fowl, or paddling after them on the open water. With the first warm days of February he launched his fleet of trimmers ; pike finding a ready sale at his own door to those who brought them to sell again in the Norwich market. As soon as the pike had spawned and were out of season, the eels began to occupy his attention, and lapwings' eggs to be dili gently sought for. " In the end of April the island in his watery domain was frequently visited, for the sake of shooting the ruffs which resorted thither on their first arrival. As the days grew longer and hotter, he might be found searching in some smaller pools near his house for the shoals of tench as they commenced spawning. Yet a little longer he began marsh-mowing — his gun always laid ready upon his coat, in case flappers should be met with.

By the middle of August teal came to a wet corner near his cottage, snipes began to arrive, and he was often called up to exercise his vocal powers on the curlews that passed to and fro. By the end of September good snipe-shooting was generally to be met with in his neighbourhood ; and his accurate knowledge of the marshes, his unassum ing good-humour, and zeal in providing sport for those who employed him, made him very much sought after as a sporting guide by snipe-shots and fishermen ; and his knowledge of the habits of different birds enabled him to give useful information to those who collected them." The older men have many yarns to tell of the gigantic pike and eels, the great catches of their younger days, with sometimes a spice of adventure, as the following tale will show. The men from the Yare and the Wav eney, having well harried their own waters, used to go up the Bure, and their depredations with nets and set lines stirred up the wrath of the men of the Bure.

There was then no remedy save that of force, so the natives banded themselves together to expel the intruders. Our informant and his mate were engaged one dark night near Eanworth setting eel-lines, when they heard the A RAID ON THE BROADS. sound of muffled oars up the stream. They listened and watched, and at last became aware that at least half-a dozen boats were creeping down in search of them. They took to their oars, and then the chase developed itself into a hot and eager one — both parties pulling their lustiest, the one to inflict and the other to escape rough punishment. The pursued were nearly caught, when they opened up a reach, down which there blew a fair strong wind, and hoisting their lug-sail they slipped away, and gained such a lead that the pursuers gave up the chase.

Chapter II. The Bird-life Of The Broads

Whether one is observant or not, one cannot help " brushing elbows " with the bird-life of the Broads. It is not the purpose of this chapter to describe the many rare species which visit or nest in the district, but rather to call attention to the everyday life therein. Embark with us, then, on board one of the small but comfortable river-yachts, and see what a single summer's day will show you. As we sail up the " north river " we see constantly the coots and water-hens as they swim in and out of the " rond," as the reed-covered water-washed bank is called. Every now and then a wild-duck or widgeon, or a brood of flappers, is disturbed by our passage ; and as we sweep round corners, herons rise on lazy wing, or, if out of gunshot, look suspiciously at us. High in air the marsh-harrier, the " Norfolk hawk," scans the marshes with hungry eye ; then we turn suddenly, as if trying to charge an oak coppice, but a narrow " gatway " reveals itself, and we glide through it on to Wroxham Broad, which is skirted by the river, the only division being a narrow " rond."

On the other side beyond the reeds the land rises in wooded undulations, with park-like spaces ABUNDANCE OF BIRD-LIFE. 13 between. All around the Broad is a dense and sheer wall of bright green reeds eight feet high, with a yellow water-mark on their lower stems. In and out of this the coots, water-hens, grebes, and wild-ducks are continually splashing and swimming. While our man is making the yacht snug for the night, we go in the jolly-boat and push her anywhere into the reeds and wait. The black-headed buntings, the reed-wrens, and the bearded tits gather close around us, and chatter and scold us vigorously ; for very little search would reveal their nests. A kingfisher flashes along, and perches on a swaying reed within a few yards, and dives in again and again for the tiny roach and bream.

Look, within ten yards are a pair of great-crested grebes and three young ones — tiny black balls, which their parents are feeding. These dive rapidly, and rise with a fish two inches long in the beak ; this is at once transferred to the young ones, which are also making ludicrous attempts to dive like their seniors. It is the last week in June, and the cuckoos have come to the Broad in numbers — why, we do not know ; hut they are flying across and perching on the trees, and calling loudly to each other, often with a note broken into three syllables — thus, cuck-cuck-oo. A fortnight later there will scarcely be one there, and the distinc tive cry will have ceased. Over the marsh, on the opposite side of the river, two brown owls are hawk ing in the bright sunshine, and, from the number of times they swoop, with great success.

Overhead, no less than five snipes are sweeping and circling about, and as they descend for short distances with quivering tail and wing -tips, we hear that curious bleating or buzzing sound (" lamming," the Norfolk people call THE BIRD-LIFE OF THE BROADS. it, because of its similarity to the bleating of lambs), which is a characteristic of the snipe in the breeding season. In the distance are many white birds flying about; and from them arises a noise like that of a rookery. We cross the Broad and the river, and enter a narrow water lane between the reeds. This presently expands into a " pulk " studded with water-lilies, between which numbers of coots and water-hens are threading their way. The water is only a foot deep and very clear, so that we can see hundreds of big bream swimming lazily about, while smaller roach and rudd play on the surface.

Here and there, as we slowly progress, we startle a basking pike. Now we are in a passage only just wide enough for the boat. Tall reeds rise on either hand, and nothing else is visible but the blue sky above. There goes a water-rail, and if we could push the boat in the reeds for a few feet, we should find its nest. Then we emerge into the open water of Hoveton Great Broad, and as we approach its lower end the air is filled with the black-headed gulls, which swoop close around and deafeU us with their cries. Among this labyrinth of reeds and narrow water-lanes and tufts of long grasses, they breed in large numbers. On every little hillock of grass you see their eggs ; and the water is dotted with the young ones, from the little yellow-and-brown ball of down just hatched, to those fully fledged and just able to fly.

It is a sight worth seeing and to be remembered; yet it cannot compare with Scoulton Mere, also in Norfolk, but out of the Broad district, where there is the largest colony known in England. As the summer wanes, the birds take their departure to the sea-coast. This end of the Broad is extremely EGGING AND BIRD-DESTROYING. 15 shallow, but the mud is of great depth. It illustrates the process which is going on year by year in the Broads : the vegetation grows rankly and dies down, and so adds a layer both in thickness and extent to the shallow margin. When, by a repetition of this process, the mud reaches the surface, the roots of the reeds and the grasses make it firmer each year, until at last it can be drained and turned into dry land. Some of the smaller Broads are growing up very fast. Such is the usual scene of a summer's day.

In the winter it is very wild and lonesome, but there are then great numbers of wild-fowl — common and rare. Of the birds which frequent the Broads, the heron is the most conspicuous, and it is to be seen everywhere. There are two or three large and many small heronries in Norfolk, and occasionally solitary pairs nest on the grouud in some inaccessible marsh, instead of in trees as is their wont. One often sees groups of five or six herons to gether ; and once a friend of ours saw twenty in a group, — this was at Haddiscoe one spring, and the cause of such an unusual assemblage was not apparent. The great-crested grebe may always be seen, and its soaking wet nest be found. If it has young ones, it dives with them under its wing when alarmed, and old and young are sometimes killed by the same shot.

A bird-stuffer told us that a pair of grebes and three young ones, all killed at one shot, were lately brought to him. When one thinks of the fond maternal care so unavailing, one is tempted to be rather hard upon the insatiable collector and the unholy trade of egging and bird-destroying which ministers to his wants. We must not blame him too much, however, for the chief damage has been done by THE BIRD-LIFE OF THE BROADS. those who collect the eggs for eating. An almost in credible number of eggs is gathered for the market ; and all eggs which in the least degree resemble plovers' eggs are sold as such. Everywhere, and particularly in Norfolk, there are scientific naturalists whose researches and discoveries are a sufficient justification of the collec tion of specimens ; but there are large numbers of people who take up egg and bird collecting for the same motive which induces people to collect postage-stamps.