T26 
ANCIENT BRICKS. 
the wild fowl fly on, and are taken in the purse-net. It often hap- 
pens, however, that the wild fowl are in such a state of sleepiness 
and dozing, that they will not follow the decoy-duck ; use is then 
generally inade of a dog, which is t, aught his lesson : he passes back- 
wards and forwards between the reed skreen, in which are little holes 
both for the decoy-man to see, and the little dog to pass through; 
this attracts the eye of the wild fowl, who, not choosing to be inter- 
rupted, advance towards the small and contemptible animal, that 
they may drive him away. Tfse dog all the time, by the direction of 
the decoy-man, plays among the skreens of reeds, nearer and nearer 
the purse-net ; till at last, perhaps, the decoy-man appears behind a 
skreen, and the wild fowl, not daring to pass by him in return, nor 
being able to escape upwards on account of the net-covering, rush 
on into the purse-net. Sometimes the dog will not attract their 
attention, unless a red handkerchief, or something very singular, is 
put about him. 
The general season for catching fowls in decoy is from the end of 
October till February ; the taking of them earlier is prohibited by an 
act 10 Geo. II. c. 32, which forbids it from June 1st to October 1st, 
under the penalty of five shillings for each bird destroyed within 
that space. The Lincolnshire decoys are generally let at a certain 
annual rent, from five pounds to twenty pounds a year; and there is 
one -in Somersetshire that pays thirty pounds. The former contribute 
principally to supply the markets in London. 
Amazing numbers of ducks, widgeons, and teal are thus every year 
taken. A few winters past, in one season, and in only ten decoys, in the 
neighbourhood of Wainfleet, the number amounted to thirty-one thou- 
sand two hundred, in which were included several other species of 
ducks. These quantities make them so cheap on the spot, that the 
decoy-men would be content to contract for years to deliver their 
ducks at Boston for ten-pence per couple. It was customary for- 
merly to have in the fens an animal to drive on the young ducks, be- 
fore they took wing. Numbers of people assembled, who beat a 
vast tract, and forced the birds into a net placed at the spot where 
the sport was to terminate : one hundred and fifty dozens have been 
taken at once ; but this practice being supposed to be detrimental, 
has been abolished by act of parliament. 
Ancient Bricks. 
Bricks are of great antiquity, as appears by the sacred writings, 
the tower and the walls of Babylon being built with them. The 
Greeks generally used three kinds of bricks. The dimensions of the 
brick chiefly used by the Romans, were a foot and a half long, and 
a foot broad ; which measures agree with those of several Roman 
bricks in England, which are about seventeen inches long and eleven 
broad, of our measure. Sir Henry Wotton speaks of a sort of bricks 
at Venice, of which stately columns were built ; they were first formed 
in a circular mould, and cut, before they were burnt, in four or more 
quarters or sides; afterwards, in laying, they w'ere jointed so close, 
and the points concentered so exactly, that the pillars appeared one 
entire piece. 
