MR. T. SOUTHWELL ON EARLY DUTCH AND ENGLISH DECOYS. 611 
it that this happened some years previous to his death ; hut 
Brereton, if he did not forestall Woodhouse, must have followed 
him very closely, for he evidently possessed a decoy in Cheshire, 
worked by a Dutchman, previous to his visit to Holland which 
took place in the year 1634. Evelyn mentions his visit to the 
King’s decoy in St. James’s Park on the 9th February, 1665 ; 
and on the 29th March following he says in his diary that “Ilis 
Majesty was now finishing the Decoy in the park.” * Willoughby 
(or Ray) in the ‘ Ornithologia ’ f does not mention the word 
decoy at all, but refers to the introduction of the system as 
something quite new at the time of his writing. After describ- 
ing the old system of “driving” he thus proceeds: — “Our 
country men (imitating, as 1 suppose, the Low Dutch, who 
are authors of the invention) in maratime and fenny places, in 
pools prepared by a new artifice and fitted with their channels 
and nets, and stored well with Coy-Ducks ” &c., he also adds 
that “some train a Whelp for this sort of fowling;” but his 
description of the process is imperfect, and the part he assigns 
to the dog, shows that ho had not altogether divested himself 
of the old idea of “ driving ” the moulting fowl into tunnel 
nets which had so long been practised. The above was probably 
written by Willoughby, who died in the year 1672, so that it 
is evident the art of decoying was not very generally understood 
even at that time ; indeed, so late as the year 1 7 28, the per- 
nicious system of driving evidently continued, notwithstanding that 
the Act of 9 of Anne (1710) C. cx., was still in force. I think 
it would be safe to infer that the Decoy proper, as we now 
understand it, was introduced into England from Holland quite 
as early as the second decade of the 17th century. 
But it is quite time we accompanied Sir William in his 
journey to Holland. On the 22nd May, 1634, he and his party 
went on board “Mr. John Thompson's Pink” at Greenwich, 
a vessel of only fifty tons, filled up with merchandise and 
crowded with fifty-seven passengers, two of whom were women 
* ‘ Evelyn’s Memoirs,’ 2nd Edit. (.1819) ; 2 vols. 4to., vol. i. pp. 373 and 374. 
An account of the cost of building this decoy and of the materials used 
will be found in Cunningham’s ‘ Handbook of London,’ vol. ii., p. 434. 
t ‘ Ornithologia ’ (Ed. IH78), p. 373. 
