io8 THE BOOK OF DUCK DECOYS. 



" ' The law condemns the man or woman 



Who steals the goose from off the common, 



But lets the greater felon loose, 



Who steals the common from the goose ! ' 



" Dugdale very ingeniously argues, with regard to the dreaded scarcity 

 of fowl, that when the country is drained there will be an increase in the 

 number of ' rivers, chanels, and meres,' which form the principal resorts of 

 the fowl, and their numbers will probably be augmented in consequence ; 

 also, that the fish and fowl will be more easily taken within the restricted 

 bounds than in the more open water ; added to which, the decoys planted 

 on the drained lands would capture a much larger number of fowl than 

 could be secured by any other means formerly used. We fear that all these 

 arguments would be insufficient to convince the hardy Fen-men, who lived 

 by their nets and guns, that the latter state of things was preferable to the 

 former. 



" The chief feature in the animal life found in the Fens in days gone 

 by must have been the great abundance of birds and fishes. When 

 William the Conqueror lay with an army before the Isle of Ely, vainly 

 attempting to force the remnant of the English who had taken refuge in 

 this their last stronghold to surrender, it is said, that, but one only of his 

 soldiers succeeded in entering the isle alive. This man, Beda by name, 

 was taken prisoner by Hereward's men, and after being treated with kind- 

 ness was allowed to return to the King's camp. The account he gives to 

 William of what he witnessed in the Isle of Ely, of the strength of its 

 position, ' compassed about with huge waters and fens, as it were with a 

 strong wall,' of the multitude of wild animals both in the woods and near 

 the Fens : as also of fish found in the waters, and fowl which are bred there, 

 or visit the Fens, especially in the winter season, must have given the 

 King but slight hopes of reducing the brave defenders of this natural 

 stronghold by starvation.* Dugdale, also, quoting the register of Ramsey 

 Abbey, after expatiating upon its strong insular position, and the beauty of 

 its surroundings, says its waters, especially Ramsey Mere, abound with 

 Eels and ' Pikes of an extraordinary bigness,' ' and although both fishers 

 and fowlers cease neither day nor night to haunt it, yet is there always of 

 fish and fowl no litde store.' At a much later period, early in the seven- 



* "Liber Eliensis " (ed. Stewart), pp. 231, 232. 



