HIS TOR Y OF DE COY S. 87 



Old Halt (2). A mile to the E. of and near the Old Hall Decoy just 

 described, in the same marshes, are to be seen traces of a small Decoy for 

 Teal, long since disused, and of which no particulars are now obtainable. 



Mersea Island, or IVest Mersea Decoy, on the N. bank of the Black- 

 water, 8 miles S. of Colchester, and i^ miles E. of West Mersea village. 

 In a " General View of the Agriculture of the County of Essex," by the 

 Secretary of the Board of Agriculture, 8vo, London, 1807, the following 

 account is given of the Decoy on Mersea Island (vol. ii. p. 361) : — 



" One of the best, if not the most considerable Decoy in the county, is 

 on Mersea Island, and rented, with a small farm of about sixty acres, by Mr. 

 Buxton, of Layer de la Haye. He was so obliging as to accompany me 

 from thence into Mersea, and to show me his Decoy. Not having before 

 viewed a Decoy in the taking season, I had not remarked the precaution of 

 each person taking a piece of lighted turf on a table-fork in his hand to 

 approach the Decoy ; as the wild ducks, it is said, would smell the person 

 without caution, and immediately quit the pond. I found the expenses of 

 this Decoy considerable : two men attend it, who are paid above ^100 a 

 year ; repairs, net, rents, &c., amount in all to about ^300 a year. Ducks 

 are sometimes as low as 14s. a dozen. The contrivance for \.3!iC\Vi^ Dunbirds 

 was new to me. At the Decoy for them near Ipswich [the Brantham 

 Decoy is here alluded to.- — Author], there are a series of very high poles, 

 to which the nets are attached, for taking them in their flight ; and these 

 poles are permanent. At this Mersea Decoy, to which this bird resorts in 

 large quantities as well as ducks, the net poles are lowered when not at 

 work. Mr. Lee has a Decoy at Goldhanger, in which he took at one haul 

 one waggon load and two cart-loads of Dunbirds ; but the disturbance 

 made frightened such as escaped so much, that he took no more that 

 season." 



Mersea Island is often spoken of as East and West Mersea. The 

 island is not divided, and it is called thus to distinguish its extremities. 

 It is close to the north bank of the Blackwater Estuary. The Mersea 

 Island Decoy was discontinued 15 years ago on account of the shore- 

 gunners, who were able by reason of its proximity to the coast, to disturb 

 it with shooting. It was originally a Pochard pond, and is situated on land 

 known as " Bacon's Farm." 



Having now dealt with the Decoys on both shores of the Blackwater, 



