An Autobiography of an Ancient Athlete & Antiquarian

16~ AUTOBIOGRAPHY supported as it deserved to be. The result of the sale by auction of the pictures, &c., I had got together for the same fund only produced £27 or so. On the 8th Purdy and I went over to see the tame bustards at Coltishall, and in the evening I met at a Roman Catholic Dinner the late Father Fitzgerald, who impressed me as being a very able man. By the 25th February I had completed the draft of a petition to Parliament asking for a Royal Commission as to the public rights on the Broads, and it was printed on that day in the Eastern Daily Press. It ran as follows:- " To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of " Great Britain and Ireland in Parliament assembled. '' The humble petition of us, the undersigned inhabitants of " Norfolk and Suffolk, and of others interested in the "preservation and free opening of the Norfolk Broads and " rivers " Showeth as follows :- " That from time immemorial until about the year 1860 such "parts of the rivers of Norfolk and Suffolk and the broadenings " out thereof technically known as 'Broads' as were regularly " affected by the rise and fall of the tide were always used by " any of his Majesty's subjects for purposes of passage, recrea– " tion, and :fishing, without the let or hindrance of anyone. " That about such year certain claims began to be put " forward by the riparian owners to prevent such public user, " and the entrances to certain of the broads, and especially "Hovdon, were improperly chained up, and in certain others, "such as Wroxham, such entrances were similarly chained up, " and in one case filled up with earth, with the result in both ·' cases of improperly blocking the King's river which ran " through both broads, and materially interfering with the " passage of trading wherries and pleasure boats. " That such claims have in several cases been supported bY "the voluntary payment by such riparian owners of tithe and " rates and taxes with the idea of forming a paper title to such " :fishery. " That with one exception very careful search among the " public records bas failed to find the existence of any grant of " free :fishery before Magna Charta of any portions of the rivers " or broads, although there were many grants of the right of " free warren to be found among such records in respect of " lands and manors abutting on such rivers. " That all claims made to exclusive fishery have without " exception been made on the presumption of lost grants, and '' that no grant has ever been actually produced or cited by the " claimants. " The great hardships have arisen from the fact that poor " :fisherman who have been acting within their s_trict legal rights