HISTORY OF DECOYS. 167 



But in an ordinary Decoy, of an acre or so of water, the fowl will not 

 bring in any companions from their nightly haunts, unless they fly to these 

 spots from the Decoy, and so mix with and induce more birds to accompany 

 them to its seclusion on their return at dawn. 



Lakenheath, on the borders of Norfolk and Suffolk, within half a mile 

 of the Decoy at Hockwold. It is north of Mildenhall, in Sedge Fen. The 

 date of the construction of this Decoy is unknown, but Mr. H. M. Upcher 

 ascertained that it was for several seasons worked by Williams (see 

 Wrangle), who hired it of Mr. W. Eagle. It was next taken by W. 

 Skelton, who left it in 1840, and shortly after made Lord Caledon's 

 Decoy in Ireland, in exact imitation of it. In one year Williams is said 

 to have cleared near ^700 by the sale of wildfowl taken at Lakenheath. 

 He used to send up a ton of Ducks to London twice a week in the 

 season. An old keeper living in the parish in 1878 declared that he 

 once saw fully 3,000 fowl sitting outside this Decoy in the fen " waiting 

 for those inside to be taken to make room for them," as the Decoy was 

 so full "it looked as if one could not prick a pin in anywhere." 



The Decoy has not been worked for more than thirty years, having 

 been abandoned when the railway was made from Brandon to Ely, and it 

 is now entirely grown up. 



Mr. E. Fountaine, brother of the Rev. John Fountaine who made the 

 Narford and Westacre Decoys, informs me that to his knowledge as many 

 as 15,000 fowl had been taken at Lakenheath in one season. 



The Lakenheath Decoy, though some 50 miles from the coast, was 

 probably the most successful one of its day, owing to its wild locality and 

 surrounding fens, which for miles on all sides were the resort of numberless 

 wildfowl. It lies within a quarter of a mile north of the G. E. Railway 

 from Brandon to Ely, on the south bank of the Brandon River, ']\ miles 

 west of Brandon, between Lakenheath and Mildenhall Stations. 



This and the Hockwold Decoy were so close together that they inter- 

 fered with each other, though the latter was in Norfolk, just across the 

 border of the two counties. No records are procurable respecting the age 

 of the Lakenheath Decoy. (For a plan of it see page opposite.) 



Benacre. — In 1880 the late Sir Francis Gooch had a Decoy pipe con- 

 structed on the Broad near his residence, Benacre Hall, 4^ miles NE. of 

 Wangford ; but soon after it was made the shooting was let, and the Decoy 



