Page 11 THE POSITION OF DECOYS.

THE POSITION OF DECOYS.

    But at last came a radical change. An old man named George Skelton emigrated from Friskney, the home of Decoys, to Norfolk. He at once condemned the large Norfolk lakes as Decoys; he plainly showed that on such extensive waters the fowl were out of reach of the Decoyman and his allurements, that the birds had not sufficient shelter thereon, and that from their size it was not possible to keep them clear of ice. He put his words to good proof for Lubbock tells us that "Mr Huntingdon of Somerton being about to form a Decoy out of a low and overgrown part of his marshes at Winterton, engaged an elderly man named George Skelton from Friskney, in Lincolnshire, and desired him to state the size which he preferred for his Decoy. To every one's amazement, from two to two acres and a half was the space wished for; workmen were put on, and the Decoy in miniature, as compared to others in Norfolk, was soon completed. Other Decoymen laughed when told of the petty puddle in which Mr Skelton chose to exercise his skill. But laughter ceased and amazement began, when, in the second year of his superintendence, Skelton took 1,100 teal in seven consecutive days."
    Till the end of the last century, Lincolnshire was certainly the county most famous for Decoys, and in which a greater number existed than elsewhere. Pennant records that 31,000 ducks were caught in one season in ten Decoys in the neighbourhood of Wainfleet, Lincolnshire, and adds that the Decoymen "would be glad to contract for years to sell their ducks at 5d. apiece."
    At the Ashby Decoy, in Lincolnshire, even in comparatively recent times (I834-1868), the Decoy Book accounts for just 100,000 ducks in thirty-four seasons of catching.
Now, though Lincolnshire had great returns, other counties did wonderfully well, particularly Essex, with its immense estuaries and their feeding grounds to attract the fowl.
    The Essex Decoys were individually famous ones, and rivalled in number those of Lincolnshire and Norfolk. Suffolk contained a fair number, but Cambridgeshire and other adjoining counties only a few.
    Yorkshire boasted several in its eastern division, about the great marshes of Holderness. Dorset and Hampshire had one or two each, Kent a couple. There were a score or so in Ireland, none in Scotland, and but few in Wales.