Page 154 THE BOOK OF DUCK DECOYS.

THE BOOK OF DUCK DECOYS.

It unfortunately cannot be proved that this Decoy existed in times when the Abbey of Glastonbury flourished, as it is not mentioned in the contemporaneous records that speak of the Fish Houses, Eel and Fish Stews-the Deer, Swans, Herons, and Wildfowl of Sharpham and Meare. The fact that the Decoy is in the Abbot's Park now, of course does not prove it existed therein in the days of the Abbey, though local tradition asserts positively that it did. This pool, once a very lucrative one, is exactly similar to those at Berkeley Castle, the latter having been copied from it. Shapwick, 5½ miles to the W. of Glastonbury, near the north slope of the Polden Hills, and not far from Sedgemoor, on Shapwick Heath, is a Decoy, which is still occasionally worked, belonging to Mr. G. Warry, of Shapwick House, Bridgewater. In consequence, however, of shooting being carried on near the pool, the fowl are too much disturbed, and do not resort there in any number ; so that the working of it cannot be called successful, and is, indeed, but occasional. This Decoy was made by William Chancellor in 1850 and after his death it was never properly supervised. It has four pipes, and resembles the Decoy at Sharpham as well as those near it at Sedgemoor. King's Sedgemoor, 4 miles SW. of Glastonbury, and close to the south slope of the Polden Hills, within a mile and a half of Walton, and between that village and Compton Dundon, are three Decoys. These pools are but a quarter of a mile from one -another, and are situated on the vast swampy plain of King's Sedgemoor, before described. They are on the estate of the Marquis of Bath, and from 1868 to 1882 were rented, with the adjoining shooting, by Admiral V. Hickley of Taunton. On their late occupier giving them up, I took them for a season, but they proved unsuccessful, and they are now in the possession of a local farmer. The pools are only 30 to 40 yards square, each pool having four pipes, one to every corner. The pipes are very short and narrow, being but 45 yards in length on their curve, and only 10 feet wide at their entrances. The pools have no landing-places, and as Decoys are of the most primitive description.