HISTORY OF DECOYS. 91 



returned home from the feed in the early morning, and then we would 

 throw a quantity of barley on the then fresh formed ice, and the weight of 

 the ducks getting upon its surface would cause it to break again, and allow 

 a mass of birds to keep swimming about all day in a small compass of 

 water, and so doing the work for us of keeping the Decoy open. Some- 

 times a ferret was used, but nothing equalled a good, liver-coloured 

 dog. 



" ' The ducks we used as Decoy ducks were always a good, dark grey in 

 colour, ducks that would quack well. They well knew their work, and when 

 the drives took place would go on quietly swimming about as if nothing had 

 happened. Hard by the Oakley Hall Decoy pond was the Decoy at 

 Mose Hall.' Mr. Smith describes with animation how this Decoy came to 

 be discontinued, and how his and his father's occupation was at last ruined 

 by the spite of the Decoyman at Old Mose Hall. 



" The two Decoymen were sworn and jealous enemies, and the one at 

 Old Mose Hall, to annoy the other, used to buy all the assafoetida he could 

 afford, and building it into a lump on the top of a bonfire when the wind 

 was dead on for the rival Decoy, he used to set fire to it. To use Mr. 

 Smith's words, ' The stink then was awful, and neither man nor duck could 

 stand it and had to leave the position in the hands of the enemy. No, that 

 vile stuff stunk out the whole place, and finally killed my father of grief and 

 destroyed the fine Decoy.' " 



Horsey Island.- — A large island in Hamford Water 2 miles NW. of 

 Walton-le-Soken, on which a Decoy formerly existed, and was last worked 

 by a man named Abraham Annis, about 50 years ago. 



The pool with six pipes is still to be seen ; it is placed close to Walton 

 Creek in the stone marshes, and was discontinued owing to the difficulty of 

 supplying it with fresh water. 



Dovercozirt Decoy, i mile E. of Ramsey, on a marsh adjoining South 

 Hall. The outline of the pool can still be traced, though it has not been 

 worked for 60 years. 



The Decoys that existed along the shore of Essex travelling north 

 from the Colne to Harwich being now described, we will turn due west 

 from Harwich to Manningtree, along the S. bank of the Stour estuary. 



At a distance from Harwich of 7 miles (W.) we come to a group of 

 four old Decoys, all within 3 miles east of Bradfield, Of these four pools, 



