HISTORY OF DECOYS. 145 



As many as 500 Wild Duck are sometimes to be seen resting on tlie 

 surface of the Haughton Decoy in the winter. 



The passing of the Ground Game Act is said to have materially inter- 

 fered with the working of this Decoy, as the constant trespass by tenants 

 on the adjoining lands disturbs the solitude of the place and alarms the 

 fowl. 



A family of Decoymen named Ward have been at Haughton for 

 generations in connection with this Decoy. The Decoy was originally 

 on the estate of the Earl of Clare, who died in the sixteenth century, and 

 whose daughter married the fifth Earl of Lincoln, ancestor of the present 

 owner of the property. The ancient fish ponds and other appurtenances 

 of the Decoy evince the great care and expense that has been bestowed 

 on it and its surroundings in bygone daj-s. 



This Decoy is, as far as can be ascertained, the oldest trap Decoy in 

 our islands, and it- is from this that those at Park Hall, Ossington, and 

 Hardwick were copied. (See Hardwick for plan and dimensions of a trap 

 Decoy, page- 71.) 



Park Hall, 2 miles N. of Mansfield. 



There is a trap Decoy on the lake at Park Hall, the residence of Capt. 

 F. Hall. A channel about 80 feet long, cut through an island in the lake, 

 is arched over with wire netting, and has a falling door at each end, with a 

 division in the centre. The ducks are fed for some time, and when there 

 are a sufficient number in the pipe, the doors are lowered by a wire 

 from the Decoyman's hut. They are left undisturbed in this trap until 

 the other fowl on the pool have left in the evening to feed, when the 

 keeper enters with a landing-net, and, after securing all the captives, resets 

 the trap. (See Hardivick, page 71.) 



Ossington Hall, 4^ miles SSE. of Tuxford, on the estate of Lady 

 Ossington. 



About five-and-twenty years ago a trap Decoy was constructed here 

 on the plan of the one at Haughton, just described. It is, however, 

 much smaller in size, being only 24 feet long, and 8 feet high. 



The keeper approaches the Decoy by a sunken path surrounded by 

 thick evergreens, and when on peering through these he perceives a suffi- 

 cient number of fowl in the cage, the trap-door is gentl)' lowered from a 

 distance by a system of pulleys and wire, inch by inch, until they arc all 



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