12 THE BOOK OF DUCK DECOYS. 



of Glastonbury, Decoys have long existed — a dozen or more. The wild 

 moorlands and flooded marshes formerly so numerous in that county were 

 highly favourable for attracting wildfowl. But later on I shall treat of the 

 Decoys and their respective counties in alphabetical order, and shall give 

 the history and position of each as distinctly as possible. 



The Skeltons. 



This was a famous family of Decoymen who came from Friskney, in 

 Lincolnshire, at the beginning of the present century, the various members 

 of which constructed or remodelled nearly all our best Decoys, past and 

 present, and a few of their descendants are still in active work as Decoy- 

 men to this day. 



The Skeltons were unrivalled in their knowledge of Decoying and 

 skill in the construction of Decoys, and were, as I have said, the first to 

 introduce into Norfolk the small pools of their native district in lieu of 

 the large lakes previously used as Decoys in that county. 



The first of the name to leave Lincolnshire was " Old George Skelton"; 

 he was brought to Somerton in 1807 by Mr. Huntington, to design a Decoy 

 for him on his estate, an account of which transaction I have given. 



Old George was accompanied or soon followed by his four sons, 

 George, William, Richard, and Henry. 



Old George, as stated, made, and till his death worked, the Winterton 

 Decoy in Norfolk. He died in 1840, aged eighty, and was buried in 

 Winterton Churchyard. 



His son William removed to Combe Abbey, Warwickshire, where he 

 made a Decoy for Lord Craven, and worked it till his death in 1867, at 

 the age of seventy-eight ; he also made several others, including Lord 

 Caledon's in Ireland. William had two sons, of whom one, T. Gilbert 

 Skelton, lately constructed (1885) Lord Lilford's Decoy near Thrapstone, 

 and the other holds a large farm under Lord Powerscourt in Ireland. 



Richard Skelton was for many years Decoyman for the Gurney family 

 at Hempstead. He left that place and took a Decoy at Methwold shortly 

 before his death, which occurred in 1849, at the age of fifty-three years. 



