Page 167 HISTORY OF DECOYS.

HISTORY OF DECOYS.

But in an ordinary Decoy, of an acre or so of water, the fowl will not bring in any companions from their nightly haunts, unless they fly to these spots from the Decoy, and so mix with and induce more birds to accompany them to its seclusion on their return at dawn. Lakenheath on the borders of Norfolk and Suffolk, within half a mile of the Decoy at Hockwold. It is north of Mildenhall, in Sedge Fen. The date of the construction of this Decoy is unknown, but Mr. H. M. Upcher ascertained that it was for several seasons worked by Williams (see Wrangle), who hired it of Mr. W. Eagle. It was next taken by W. Skelton, who left it in 1840 and shortly after made Lord Caledon's Decoy in Ireland, in exact imitation of it. In one year Williams is said to have cleared near Ł700 by the sale of wildfowl taken at Lakenheath. He used to send up a ton of Ducks to London twice a week in the season. An old keeper living in the parish in 1878 declared that he once saw fully 3,000 fowl sitting outside this Decoy in the fen "waiting for those inside to be taken to make room for them," as the Decoy was so full "it looked as if one could not prick a pin in anywhere." The Decoy has not been worked for more than thirty years, having been abandoned when the railway was made from Brandon to Ely, and it is now entirely grown up. Mr. E. Fountaine, brother of the Rev. John Fountaine who made the Narford and Westacre Decoys, informs me that to his knowledge as many as 15,000 fowl had been taken at Lakenheath in one season. The Lakenheath Decoy, though some 50 miles from the coast, was probably the most successful one of its day, owing to its wild locality and surrounding fens, which for miles on all sides were the resort of numberless wildfowl. It lies within a quarter of a mile north of the G. E. Railway from Brandon to Ely, on the south bank of the Brandon River, 7½ miles west of Brandon, between Lakenheath and Mildenhall Stations. This and the Hockwold Decoy were so close together that they interfered with each other, though the latter was in Norfolk, just across the border of the two counties. No records are procurable respecting the age of the Lakenheath Decoy. (For a plan of it see page opposite.) Benacre.-In 1880 the late Sir Francis Gooch had a Decoy pipe constructed on the Broad near his residence, Benacre Hall, 4½ miles NE. of Wangford; but soon after it was made the shooting was let, and the Decoy in consequence was never used ; nor has it been worked since, the present baronet, Sir Alfred Gooch, preferring to shoot the wildfowl which resort there.