SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 





was established in or about the year 1860, was 

 abandoned some five and twenty years ago, 

 but there are generally a few to be shot in suit- 

 able weather. The lake in the park where the 

 decoy was situated is still in existence, and wild- 

 fowl frequent it in the winter. Wood pigeons 

 afford some sport in winter, when they are pre- 

 sent in some numbers, but they are not seen 

 here in the big flocks which appear elsewhere. 



DECOYS 



In the days when the population of Notting- 

 hamshire was smaller, and before shooting 

 became so universal, large numbers of wild-fowl 

 used to resort to the many considerable lakes 

 which are a feature of this part of England. The 

 county once possessed at least four decoys, where 

 duck and other fowl were taken ; and none of 

 these, so far as we can discover, was used with 

 any idea of making it a commercial success, as 

 was the case with the majority of the decoys in 

 other parts of the kingdom. 



Writing in 1886, Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey, 

 who has studied the ways of wild-fowl more 

 closely than any other man of our own time, 

 says that he considers Nottinghamshire to con- 

 tain, at most times, more wild-fowl than any 

 other English county that is without a sea-coast. 

 But he goes on to state that the decoys therein 

 have always been of a rude and primitive de- 

 scription, having been copied from the curious, 

 and doubtless original, one of the county that 

 at Haughton. 



Haughton Decoy, which is situated at a 

 distance of about a mile to the north of 

 Walesby, and some 4 miles to the south-east 

 of the park at Clumber, is of very ancient 

 origin, but there are no records now available 

 to decide its age. It stands in an ideal situation 

 in the middle of a wood of 30 acres, the pond 

 itself being some 8 acres in extent. In this 

 decoy, the fowl, instead of being taken, as in 

 other decoys, by means of tunnel nets at the 

 end of pipes, are captured by the simple expedi- 

 ent of letting down a trap-door at the entrance 

 of the covered pipe, after they have been enticed 

 therein by the food thrown into the water. No 

 attempt is made to remove them when they are 

 caught, such a proceeding in an open decoy of 

 this pattern being fatal to success, because of the 

 disturbing influence it would have on any other 

 fowl in the vicinity. The birds are therefore 

 left in the cage until flight time in the evening ; 

 when the other fowl having taken their departure 

 the caged victims are taken out and killed. In a 

 decoy of this sort no great ' takes ' are ever made, 

 and at Haughton no more than thirty birds at a 

 time have been captured. Some 300 to 400 fowl 

 a year, including wild duck, teal, and wigeon, 

 used to be the average, but on a few occasions this 

 number has been considerably exceeded. In the 



season 1 884-5, for instance, nearly 500 birds were 

 secured. If this decoy were worked on a more 

 comprehensive scale with extra pipes and tunnel 

 nets, it would doubtless be capable of yielding 

 much higher figures than those given ; but it 

 has never been regarded as a commercial enter- 

 prise, and has always fulfilled well enough the 

 purpose for which it was intended. The Haugh- 

 ton Decoy is supposed to be the oldest of its kind 

 in England, and is said to be the pattern from 

 which the more recently established decoys at 

 Park Hall, Ossington, and at Hardwick were 

 constructed. The ancient fish-ponds and other 

 appurtenances of the decoy show the great care 

 and expense that were bestowed upon it, and it 

 is worth mentioning that the pond has been 

 under the care of a family of the name of Ward, 

 well known in the district as a race of decoy-men 

 for many generations. 6 



The other decoys of Nottinghamshire are of 

 much less importance than that at Haughton. 

 That at Park Hall, 2 miles north of Mansfield, 

 consists of a channel some 80 ft. in length, cut 

 through an island in the lake and arched over 

 with wire netting. It has a falling door at each 

 end with a division in the centre, the operation 

 of capturing the fowl being exactly the same as 

 that employed at Haughton. This decoy is in 

 good working order, the present owner being Mr. 

 Francis Hall. 



At Wollaton Hall, 3 miles to the west of 

 Nottingham, there formerly existed a small trap 

 decoy, similar to those described, and situated on 

 a small island in the centre of a lake of some 

 23 acres. This decoy was on the property of 

 Lord Middleton, but the date of its beginning is 

 unknown, and it has long since fallen into a 

 state of disrepair. Here, however, there also 

 existed at one time probably about 1825 a 

 three-pipe decoy on about an acre of water. This 

 was close to the lake on the west side and in a good 

 situation ; but, although the decoy appears to have 

 been worked for a period of about twenty years, it 

 was never very successful, no doubt owing to 

 the fact that the district became every year more 

 thickly populated. The ' takes ' are said to have 

 been from 100 to 300 fowl a season when 

 the decoy was at its best, but the numbers fell 

 away so rapidly towards the end that the decoy 

 was abandoned in 1845. 



A decoy of comparatively recent construction 

 was that formed at Ossington Hall, about the 

 year 1860. This was a trap-decoy of much 

 the same pattern as that at Haughton, but 

 a much smaller scale. An ingenious 



on 



arrangement enabled the decoy-man to see how 

 things were going when he wanted to make a 

 catch, a sunken path being constructed nearly to 

 the edge of the decoy, with evergreens planted 

 along each side to assist in screening his move- 



5 Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey, The Book cf Duck 

 Decoys, 



401 



