Page 113 HISTORY OF DECOYS.
113

HISTORY OF DECOYS.
This state of things led to a most pernicious abuse of opiates, laudanum being consumed by the Fen-folks, by whom it was at first used as a prophylactic against malarious fever, or as an antidote to the periodic attacks-in quantities altogether astonishing. Happily, with the disappearance of the disease, the abuse of the remedy has gradually ceased ; and at the present time, although, doubtless, there are many confirmed elderly laudanum-drinkers in Fenland, it is a practice which is fast dying out, and will, it is to be hoped, cease with the present generation of elders. Ague was familiarly known as the ' Bailiff of Marshland.'
    "A very eccentric character, named William Hall-who loved to style himself 'Antiquarian Hall,' 'Will Will-be-So,' or 'Fen Bill Hall'died at Lynn in 1825. Hall was born on June 1st (old style), 1748, at Willow Booth, then a small island 'of but few perches' in extent, in the Lincolnshire Fens, near Heckington Ease, in the parish of South Kyme. He has left behind him some doggerel verses, now very scarce, entitled A Chain of Incidents relating to the state of the Fens from earliest accounts to the present time. Printed by W. G. Whittingham of Lynn in 1812 for the author, and sold by him only. Price one shilling.' This 'sketch of local history' only reached its third number, and the only copy I have seen is in the library of the British Museum. It is a curious mixture of odds and ends in prose and doggerel verse, but is interesting from the references it contains to the state of the Fens in the author's early days, and the occasional glimpses it reveals of the life led by the 'Fen slodgers' more than one hundred years ago.
In his 'prefatory salutation' he thus addresses his reader (P.3):-
"'All hail ! esteem'd aquatic friend,
   Since both our aims are for one end;
   To tell those that's not seen much water,
   In days of yore what was the matter;
   Announce to th'public we are penmen,
   By narrating the lives of Fen-men.
Of the place of his birth he speaks as follows:-
"'Kyme God knows,
   Where no corn grows,
   Nothing but a little hay,
        And the water comes,
   And takes it all away.


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