Page 145 HISTORY OF DECOYS.

HISTORY OF DECOYS.

As many as 500 Wild Duck are sometimes to be seen resting on the surface of the Haughton Decoy in the winter. The passing of the Ground Game Act is said to have materially interfered with the working of this Decoy, as the constant trespass by tenants on the adjoining lands disturbs the solitude of the place and alarms the fowl. A family of Decoymen named Ward have been at Haughton for generations in connection with this Decoy. The Decoy was originally on the estate of the Earl of Clare who died in the sixteenth century, and whose daughter married the fifth Earl of Lincoln, ancestor of the present owner of the property. The ancient fish ponds and other appurtenances of the Decoy evince the great care and expense that has been bestowed on it and its surroundings in bygone days. This Decoy is, as far as can be ascertained, the oldest trap Decoy in our islands, and it is from this that those at Park Hall, Ossington, and Hardwick were copied. (See Hardwick for plan and dimensions of a trap Decoy, page 71.) Park Hall, 2 miles N. of Mansfield. There is a trap Decoy on the lake at Park Hall, the residence of Capt. F. Hall. A channel about 80 feet long, cut through an island in the lake, is arched over with wire netting, and has a falling door at each end, with a division in the centre. The ducks are fed for some time, and when there are a sufficient number in the pipe, the doors are lowered by a wire from the Decoyman's hut. They are left undisturbed in this trap until the other fowl on the pool have left in the evening to feed, when the keeper enters with a landing-net, and, after securing all the captives, resets the trap. (See Hardwick, page 71) Ossington Hall, 4½ miles SSE. of Tuxford, on the estate of Lady Ossing Ossington. About five-and-twenty years ago a trap Decoy was constructed here on the plan of the one at Haughton, just described. It is, however, much smaller in size, being only 24 feet long, and 8 feet high. The keeper approaches the Decoy by a sunken path surrounded by thick evergreens, and when on peering through these he perceives a sufficient number of fowl in the cage, the trap-door is gently lowered from a distance by a system of pulleys and wire, inch by inch, until they are all enclosed.