i84 THE BOOK OF DUCK DECOYS. 



one in Sharpham Park near Glastonbury, which latter is said to have been 

 in existence when Sharpham belonged to the Abbey of Glastonbury. 



Scorboroiigh. — This, like the Watton Decoy, was once a very noted 

 one. It is situated 2^ miles NNE. of Beverley, on the west bank of the 

 River Hull, and in the low-lying land between the river and the high road 

 from Beverley to Driffield. 



Though trees have grown up in and round it very thickly, still the pool 

 and the pipes are plainly visible, and it is evident that much care and 

 expense was in former times bestowed upon it. The site of the Decoy 

 was well chosen, for even now, when there is an overflow from the river 

 (formerly an annual, now an occasional occurrence), wildfowl resort to its 

 vicinity in considerable numbers. 



Holme Decoy was contemporary in its decay with those at Meaux, 

 Watton, and Scorborough, and was placed on Spalding Moor, also in the 

 East Riding of York, and 5 to 6 miles SW. by W. of Market Weighton. 



This district, and to the E. of it Walling Fen, formerly comprised a 

 large extent of wet moor and fen-land, and there are now several large 

 ponds in the neighbourhood, such as Hotham and Houghton ponds, where 

 wildfowl still assemble in considerable numbers in severe weather. 



Allen, in his "History of Yorkshire" (1829), alluding to Spalding Moor, 

 remarks that, " People then living could recollect when this moor and its 

 neighbourhood was one great morass, that extended from Holme upon 

 Spalding to Howden on the River Ouse, 10 miles distant." 



In my notes of these old Holderness Decoys, I have been most 

 kindly assisted by Mr. F. Boyes of Beverley, who not only supplied me 

 with useful information, but, by surveying the pools, has enabled me to give 

 correct outlines of their shape. 



Slink Island. — A Decoy was constructed here about the close of the 

 seventeenth century, but owing to its exposed position neither trees nor 

 underwood could be induced to grow round it for shelter, and conse- 

 quently it was abandoned soon after it was completed. (Allen's " York- 

 shire," 1S29.)* 



* In " Leland's Itinerary" is a letter from the Rev. Francis Brokesby, dated in the year 

 1 71 1, in which an account is given of the state of Sunk Island at that time, and in which 

 this Decoy is alluded to. Mr. Brokesby says : " Sunk Island was spoken of as a novelty when 

 I first went into Yorkshire, forty-four years ago (1667), a little after which time this Island 

 was bestowed on Colonel Anthony Gilby, then Deputy-Governor of Hull, by a grant from 



