154 THE BOOK OF DUCK DECOYS. 



It unfortunately cannot be proved that this Decoy existed in times 

 when the Abbey of Glastonbury flourished, as it is not mentioned in the 

 contemporaneous records that speak of the Fish Houses, Eel and Fish 

 Stews — the Deer, Swans, Herons, and Wildfowl of Sharpham and Meare. 

 The fact that the Decoy is in the Abbot's Park noiv, of course does not 

 prove it existed therein in the days of the Abbey, though local tradition 

 asserts positively that it did. This pool, once a very lucrative one, is 

 exactly similar to those at Berkeley Castle, the latter having been copied 

 from it. 



Shapwick, 5|- miles to the W. of Glastonbury, near the north slope 

 of the Polden Hills, and not far from Sedgemoor, on Shapwick Heath, 

 is a Decoy, which is still occasionally worked, belonging to Mr. G. 

 Warry, of Shapwick House, Bridgewater. In consequence, however, of 

 shooting being carried on near the pool, the fowl are too much disturbed, 

 and do not resort there in any number ; so that the working of it cannot be 

 called successful, and is, indeed, but occasional. This Decoy was made by 

 William Chancellor in 1850, and after his death it was never properly 

 supervised. 



It has four pipes, and resembles the Decoy at Sharpham as well as 

 those near it at Sedgemoor. 



King's Sedgemoor, 4 miles SW. of Glastonbury, and close to the south 

 slope of the Polden Hills, within a mile and a half of Walton, and between 

 that village and Compton Dundon, are three Decoys. 



These pools are but a quarter of a mile from one another, and are situ- 

 ated on the vast swampy plain of King's Sedgemoor, before described. 

 They are on the estate of the Marquis of Bath, and from 1868 to 1882 were 

 rented, with the adjoining shooting, by Admiral V. Hickley of Taunton. 

 On their late occupier giving them up, I took them for a season, but 

 they proved unsuccessful, and they are now in the possession of a local 

 farmer. The pools are only 30 to 40 yards square, each pool having four 

 pipes, one to every corner. The pipes are very short and narrow, being 

 but 45 yards in length on their curve, and only 10 feet wide at their 

 entrances. 



The pools have no landing-places, and as Decoys are of the most 

 primitive description. It is the custom here to entice the fowl down wind 

 into the pipes, and the Decoymen will not venture near an up-wind pipe. 



