CHAPTER V. 



THE HISTORY OF DECOYS. 



" Tow'rds Lincolnsliire our progress laid ; 

 We through deep Holland's ditches made, 

 Fowling and fishing in the fen." 



DRAYTON. 



IT seems quite unaccountable that none but cursory and imperfect 

 accounts of the decoy should hitherto have issued from the press ; 

 such, however, is a fact, that no full elucidation of the subject has 

 ever been published. 



It cannot have been that the subject was not sufficiently attractive 

 to demand the attention of the general reader as well as of the 

 more careful inquirer ; since, as regards natural history, rustic art, 

 and ingenuity of contrivance, there are none to equal it ; and, when 

 it is considered that to this day the chief supplies of wild- fowl to the 

 London and provincial markets are furnished from decoys, employed 

 here and in Holland, it is the more singular that so little has been 

 made known as to the means which are used for taking them. 



Decoys have generally been considered of sufficient importance to 

 be mentioned by topographers ;* but beyond a slight notice of the 

 existence of such places, no further information has been given re- 

 garding them : they have also, on several occasions, been the subject 

 of law--suits.t 



Truly, the pursuit of decoying wild-fowl is such, that to insure 

 success, it must be carried on almost in solitude. The gate of the 

 decoy grounds is invariably closed against all inquirers, because of the 

 quietude necessary to be maintained in conducting the operations ; 



* Blomefield in his " History of Norfolk ;" Watson in his " History of Wisbech ;" 

 Morant in his "History of Essex;" Palmer in his notes to "Manby's Histor/of 

 Great Yarmouth." 



f Holt's Sep., p. 14. 11 East 574. 2 Camp. 258. 



