HISTORY OF DECOYS. 155 



however thick the birds may be gathered round its mouth, and conse- 

 quently does not capture nearly as many fowl as if the Decoy was properly 

 worked in the usual way. The real fact is these pools are so very small 

 that even with burning turf it is hazardous to go to their windward side or 

 approach the up-wind pipes. The pipes being so tiny, they are but narrow 

 ditches, and are besides too closely surrounded by trees and brushwood. 



The Sedgemoor Decoys are all three exactly the same in shape as, 

 and were originally planned from, the ancient pool at Sharpham Park 

 (see plan facing page 93), as were most of, if not all the other Decoys in 

 the county of Somerset. The Sedgemoor Decoys are nearly in line with 

 one another, and appear as clumps of trees on the plain. 



The east — or as it is called, from a farm near it, the Ivythorn Decoy — 

 pool, that is the one farthest from Bridgewater and nearest Compton 

 Dundon, has proved the most successful one of the three : the west pool 

 has never done well. The east pool was made in 1825, the others shortly 

 after, all three by Joseph Everdell who is now living (1886) at Walton 

 village near the Decoys. He is still hale and hearty, though some eighty 

 years of age. In his younger days he blew off one of his hands with a fowl- 

 ing piece that burst in use, and the arm that suffered is adorned with a 

 bright steel hook. Old Joe, as he is locally called, is a fine specimen of a 

 stout, though weather-beaten Decoyman, and the manner in which he can 

 still rush behind the screens, drive the birds, and hook them out of the 

 tunnel net and twist their necks, is astonishing, to say the least, as I can 

 testify from experience. 



Admiral Hickley, who during his occupation of the Sedgemoor Decoys 

 kept a careful record of their doings, has kindly supplied me with the 

 following facts in regard to them : — 



"From 1868 to 1882, the combined average total resulting from 

 the three Decoys was 1,200 fowl, chiefly Mallard and Teal. The best 

 season was 1868-69, when near 3,000 birds were caught. The worst 

 1874-75, when only 157 were taken. In 1881-82, 2,000 fowl were 

 accounted for." 



The Admiral remarks : 



" Undoubtedly my best years were those with most variations from 

 frost to coarse southerly weather ; the more changeable, and I may say 

 generally detestable, the better." 



