DUCK-HUNTING. 
237 
“ Alas ! poor hurt fowl, now will he creep into sedges.” 
Much 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 :— 
“Falstaff. 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 also p. 33. 
