RUFFS AND REEVES 



ornithologist, to whom we are indebted for much of the 

 lore concerning these birds, made special journeys in the 

 fen country at the beginning of last century for the pur- 

 pose of collecting information about them. By the year 

 1812 he found that they were, in consequence of the 

 drainage of the fens, becoming much more scarce, and 

 even in his time their haunts in Lincolnshire were 

 chiefly restricted to the north fen, near Spalding, and 

 the east and west fens, between Boston and Spilsby. 



Ruff catching had, during the progress of centuries, 

 become a fine art among certain of the hardy fenmen 

 of Lincolnshire. The very habitations of these men 

 were but little known to the outside world, and the 

 fatteners who lived at Spalding, Cowbit, and elsewhere 

 took good care to keep the secrets of their lucrative 

 trade as much as possible to themselves. They were, 

 of course, jealous of any interference or inquiry, and 

 refused stoutly to reveal the names of the fen-fowlers or 

 to make known their dwelling-places. A stranger, un- 

 less he were of the most pertinacious and inquiring 

 disposition, might therefore as well search for a needle 

 in a bundle of hay as hope to find out the haunts and 

 habits of the fowlers plying their lonely vocations in the 

 dreary and unknown wastes of the old fenland. The 

 fatteners usually paid the fenmen a trifle under a 

 shilling apiece for the birds brought to them, and made 

 very large profits from their customers. Two guineas 

 a dozen seems to have been quite an ordinary charge 

 for fattened ruffs. A well-known feeder of ruffs at the 

 beginning of the nineteenth century was Mr. Towns, of 

 Spalding, whose family had then been engaged in the 

 business for a century. They had supplied George II. 

 and many great families with these notable delicacies. 

 Mr. Towns once undertook, says Montagu, "at the 

 desire of the late Marquis of Townshend, when that 



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