Page 13 THE SKELTONS.

THE SKELTONS.

    He had five sons, three of whom died young. His son Richard, now in the service of Lord Lilford, was many years Decoyman to Mr. R. Page at the Marsh House Decoy in Essex, and Henry is gamekeeper at Wooley Park, Wantage. There was also a daughter1 who married a Mr Register, and who is now living at Southery, near Downham Market, in Norfolk.
    Henry Skelton, the fourth son of old George, succeeded his father at the Winterton Decoy. He died in 1861, aged fifty-two years, and was buried near his father at Winterton.
    Old George, and equally so his four sons, were skilled in all connected with Decoys to a degree no one has since attained, or perhaps, for that matter, ever equalled in days previous.
    I will now speak of the eldest son of "Old George," who, after his father's death, was always himself alluded to as "Old George Skelton."
    In 1806 "Old George" the second, with his brothers William and Richard, erected the Methwold Decoy, and worked it for fifteen years. He then removed to Dersingham, where, about 1818, he set up a Decoy. This he worked till his death in 1857. In the meantime, however, he had worked the Wormegay Decoy for a short time, and constructed one at Narford Lake and another at South Acre, both for the Rev. Mr. Fountaine. He also made one for Lord Bateman at Shobden, in Herefordshire, besides assisting in constructing one at Hornby Castle, for the seventh Duke of Leeds. In remodelling the Wretham Decoy in Norfolk for Mr. Birch he caught a severe cold, from which he never recovered, and died at Dersingham on February 14th, 1857, at the age of sixty-seven years.
    This George Skelton is described as a "very peculiar man," short of stature, web-footed like a duck (see Frontispiece), very strongly built, particularly kind in disposition, perfectly indifferent to cold and hardship, well-informed, and unequalled in skill in the construction and management of Decoys.
    With all these advantages he might have died in comfort and even but unhappily late in life he gave way to a passion for drink, probably engendered by the cold and hardships he underwent in his profession. This greatly impoverished him. A gentleman who visited his deathbed thus described his visit to Mr. Southwell :-" The house Skelton lived in stood quite alone in the marshes, no great distance from the seashore, and was at that time at least two miles from any other dwellinging.