DUCK-HUNTING. 237 



" Alas ! poor hurt fowl, now will he creep into sedges." 

 Mitch Ado about Nothing, Act ii. Sc. 1. 



" Duck-hunting," i.e., hunting a tame duck in the water 

 with spaniels, was a favourite amusement in Shakespeare's 

 day. " Besides the clear streams that ran into the Thames, 

 old London boasted of innumerable wells, now lost, sullied, 

 or bricked up. There was Holy-well, Clement's-well, 

 Clerken-well, Skinners-well, Fay-well, Fede-well, Leden- 

 well, and Shad-well. West Smithfield had its horse-pond, 

 its pool of Dame Annis le Cleare, and the Perilous Pond. 

 The duck-hunting in these pools, and at Islington, was 

 a favourite amusement with the citizens." * 



" And ' hold-fast ' is the only dog, my duck." 



Henry V Act ii. Sc. 3. 



The sense of smell and hearing is possessed by most 

 wild-fowl in an extraordinary degree, and, except under 

 favourable circumstances — favourable that is to the shooter 

 — they display what Falstaff would call " a want of valour," 

 and, as soon as they become aware of the approach of the 

 enemy, ignominiously take to flight : — 



" Fa/staff. There is no more valour in that Poins than 

 in a wild duck." — Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 2. 



But, if the better part of valour be discretion, Poins, like 

 the wild duck, displays the better part : — 



* Thornbury, " Shakespeare's England," i. p. 21 , see nlso p. 33. 



