610 MR. T. SOUTHWELL ON EARLY DUTCH AND ENGLISH DECOYS. 
where the Dutch name is avowedly quoted), and probably that 
was considered the correct English form ; but doubtless the abbre- 
viated form of “ Coy,” regardless of its being a return to the 
original Dutch, would commend itself to the vulgar. Even Fen- 
Bill Hall (in 1812) used the former word in his prose writings, 
having resource to the monosyllable only where the exigencies 
of the verse required it, as : — 
Born in a coy, and bred in a [water] mill, 
Taught water to grind, and ducks for to kill. 
When the Decoy was first introduced into England it is difficult 
to determine with precision. The event has generally been 
attributed to Sir William Woodhouse, who died in the year 
1639, and probably Spelman’s assertion t that he was the first 
to erect a decoy for taking wild fowl after the Dutch fashion, on 
the marshes at Waxham, was well founded, and we may take 
# This Sir William Woodhouse of Waxham, knight, was not con- 
nected with the Wodehouses of Kimberley, one of whom bearing the same 
Christian name, created a baronet in 1611, was contemporary with him. 
He was son and heir of Sir Henry Woodhouse who died in 1624 as 
shown in the pedigree given by Blomefield, not of Sir William as stated 
in the text; was knighted in 1591, and his will was proved in 1639. 
Spelman says of him, “ Hie Gulielmus Woodhouse Eques Jacobo Regi 
nuper in facetiis, and Familiie corruentis suscitator, primum apud nos in- 
stituit Decipulum Anatarium, peregrino nomine a Koye, i.e., cors, seu 
cavea mincupatum.” (Posthumus works, 1698 Edit. ‘ Ieenia 1 p. 153). 
Apparently on the strength of this the author of the ‘ Norfolk Tour ’ 
makes him Court Jester to King James 1st, a construction which the 
above quotation certainly does not warrant. He was grandson of the 
Lord Keeper, Sir Nicholas Bacon, married a Jermyn of Rushbrook and 
was connected with the families of Hevdon, Shelton and others of equal 
standing and therefore most unlikely to have been a professional Jester. 
According to John Nicholas, E.S.A., author of the 1 Progresses of King 
James 1st,’ (Lond. 1828, 4 vols. quarto), he was with the King at 
Thetford in March, 1604-5, when his Majesty was “driven out of the 
[hunting] feeld with presse of company ” and therefore went home and 
“played at cards.” He was also one of the performers in Ben Jonsou’s 
“ Masque of Hymen ” produced at the Court on Twelfth-night 1605-6. 
The real Court Jester to James 1st and Charles 1st was the celebrated 
Archie Armstrong, of whom and his fooleries several mentions are to be 
found in volumes ii. and iii. of the work just quoted. 
f Posthumous works (Ed. 1698), ‘Iceuia’ p. 153. 
