no THE BOOK OF DUCK DECOYS. 



which I am indebted to Mr. J. J. Cohnan, M.P. — purporting to be the 

 ' Life of a Fen-man ;' but, although it gives some interesting gHmpses of 

 the Fen-man's mode of Hfe and occupation one hundred years ago, the 

 author utterly fails to avail himself of the fine opportunity which offered of 

 immortalizing himself* 



" In the introduction, the author thus describes the isolated condition of 

 the dwellers in the Fens : — ' The Fen is a vast plain intersected with various 

 natural and artificial rivers, defended with high banks to prevent the over- 

 flowing of the high country floods in their passage to the sea. On these 

 banks the inhabitants, for their better security, erect their miserable dwell- 

 ings, at a great distance sometimes from each other, and very remote from 

 their parish churches, to which they rarely resort, unless to a wedding, a 

 christening, or a burying. So that they seem to be cut off from the com- 

 munity, and are deprived of almost every advantage of social life. It is a 

 rare thing to meet with a village of twenty houses together, unless in their 

 towns, from which they are many miles distant. They are therefore ex- 

 cluded every opportunity of the very lowest education, and few of them 

 arrive at a higher erudition than to be able to read and write.' The 

 life of hardship and privation endured by this 

 " ' Humble race of men, 



Alike amphibious, by kind Nature's hand 



Form'd to exist on water or on land,' 



is thus described by our Fen-Parson in one of his prose notes : — ' The life 



of a North American savage is vastly preferable to his. They both live by 



their gun. The one traverses the woods and mountains in search of his 



prey, and retires at night to a warm cabin, with plenty of fuel to warm the 



rigour of the climate ; the other in a little skiff, which a puff of wind would 



overset, paddles about the water till the evening, and comes home wet and 



cold to his miserable hut, and lies scarcely dry and warm all night in his 



bed. The American Indian also bears a near resemblance to our hero ; as 



a fisherman he has his canoe, and ventures upon the shoals in search of 



fish ; he has also his favourite dog to attend him, and hopes that as he is 



his constant and faithful companion in this life, he will be in another. 



" ' But thinks, admitted to that equal sky, 

 His faithful dog shall bear him company.' 



* ' The Inundation ; or The Life of a Fen-man : A Poem. By a Fen-Parson.' (Lynn ; 

 W. Whittingham.) 20 pp. 4to. No date, but publislied about the year 1771." 



