136 THE BOOK OF DUCK DECOYS. 



and drying up of the creek on which it stood, the Decoy ceased to answer, 

 and about 1870 was dismantled. 



Holkham, 3 miles from Wells, the princely seat of the- Earl of Leicester. 

 —On the marshes at Holkham, half a mile north of the church, traces may 

 still be seen of an old Decoy and its pipes. It has not been worked since 

 the commencement of the present century, and no one now living can give 

 any information about it. Its position is shown on a map of Norfolk by 

 Faden, published in 1797. The lake in the park at Holkham is resorted to 

 by immense numbers of wildfowl every winter, many of which remain to 

 breed. In 1884-5 it was calculated that as many as 10,000 Wigeon 

 passed between its sheltered surface and the adjacent coast every 

 dusk and dawn, the reason being that a vessel laden with corn was 

 wrecked on the sandbanks off Holkham. Such a vast store of grain 

 being- scattered on the shore and its flats, the fowl assembled in multitudes 



o 



from all along the coast to feast on it by night, and so the majority 

 passed the day resting in the seclusion of Holkham Lake, safe from 

 persecution by the gunners. 



Lang/mm. — Mr. Southwell states that there was a Decoy at Langham, 

 3-^ miles SW. of Cley, constructed for the late Captain Marryat, R.N. 

 (the well-known author.) After his death, in 1854, the property was 

 purchased by Mr. S. F. Rippingall, and the Decoy dismantled. 



The site of the Decoy is now a field, with a small stream running 

 through it ; plantation, lake, and Decoy all gone. The Rev. E. W. Dowell, 

 who had often seen this Decoy worked, says the proportion of fowl taken 

 was about Wigeon 3, Mallard 2, Teal i. 



Wolterton, \\ miles NNW\ from Aylsham. — Mr. Southwell states, in 

 his paper on Norfolk Decoys, that at the south-west corner of Wolterton 

 Park there is a wood called the Decoy Plantation, and in it the remains of 

 what was once a Decoy, but he was unable to learn anything with regard 

 to it, except that it had certainly not been worked for more than fifty years. 



Caws/oji, il miles N E. of Reepham. — At the commencement of the 

 present century there was a Decoy in the Bluestone Hall plantation at 

 Cawston, but it was demolished by the grandfather of the present owner 

 of the property, Captain Bulwer, when he headed the pond and enlarged 

 the water. No one now living is able to give any information respecting it. 



Gunton Park, 5 miles NW. of North Walsham. — About the year 1803 



