Page 181 HISTORY OF DECOYS.

HISTORY OF DECOYS.

It is also a mile west of the village of Meaux, and il miles ENE. of Weel. A few hundred yards to the west of the Decoy stands an old low building, now used as a farm-house, and known as Butterbump Hall, a name derived from the number of Bitterns which formerly bred in the adjacent marsh. The Decoy stands at the edge of a large extent of lowlying land, and must in past days have been almost surrounded by marsh and water. Its decay as a successful Decoy would date from 1763, for in that year (4 George 111.) an Act was passed for draining the marshes in Holderness that surrounded Meaux, and several more recent Acts, such as the Beverley and Barmston Drainage Act Of 1798,* for the same purpose still further destroyed the avocation of this and other adjacent Decoys, by reclaiming from the wildfowl their old feeding-grounds. These marshes-or, as they are locally termed, Carrs-existed not only at Meaux, but also at Scorborough and Watton, where the other Decoys alluded to flourished, and which were not far distant. The carrs extended from Beverley, to near Barmston and Bridlington, and comprised 11,000 acres.

"BEVERLEY AND BARMSTON DRAINAGE ACT, 1798. "Satisfaction to be made for Decoys*.

"Whereas Richard Savage Lloyd, Esquire, is or claims to be seised or possessed of a certain piece of water and certain land at Watton contiguous thereto, which for many years last past have been used as a Decoy for the catching of wildfowl : "And whereas Sir Charles Hotham, Baronet, is or claims to be seised or possessed of a certain other piece of water and certain land at Scorbrough contiguous thereto, which for many years last past have been also used as a Decoy for the catching of wildfowl : "And whereas the said Decoys will be rendered useless or greatly injured when the said low grounds and carrs are drained and improved as directed by this Act, and by reason thereof the said Richard Savage Lloyd and Sir Charles Hotham and their heirs respectively will be deprived of receiving any or so much rent as they now respectively receive or are entitled to account thereof : Be it therefore enacted that the said Commissioners shall make such reasonable recompence and satisfaction to the said Richard Savage Lloyd and Sir Charles Hotham respectively for the damages which they shall respectively sustain by the means aforesaid as shall be agreed upon between the said Commissioners and the said Richard Savage Lloyd and Sir Charles Hotham respectively, the said Commissioners in making such recompence having regard to the probable improvement which the land in the Decoys shall respectively receive from the said drainage when the same shall be effected."