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THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
sprinkled over the former to give it flavour and at times malt
coombs with a dash of oil of aniseed over them were used.
Some difficulty was experienced in keeping the pool open during
severe frosts, but the ice was broken as well as possible until the
ducks returned from the feed in the early morning, and then
barley was thrown on the freshly formed ice and the weight of
the ducks would cause it to break again, and the mass of birds
swimming all day on the small expanse of water kept it open.
The ducks used as decoys were always a good dark grey in colour,
and birds which quacked well ; they were said to know their
work well and when the drives took place would go on quietly
swimming about as if nothing had happened. Although the
decoy was very lucrative it was abandoned, and in 1886 had not
been worked for many years. Rivalry between this and Old
Moze Hall Decoy deprived both Smith and his father of their
work. The decoymen of the two decoys were sworn and jealous
enemies and the man at Old Moze Hall used to buy assafoetida,
which he placed on the top of a bonfire which he lighted when the
wind was dead on for the rival decoy. The stink produced was
said to be so awful that neither duck nor man could stand it,
and his father died of grief.
28. Horsey Island Decoy is in the S.E. of Horsey Island
between the Wade and Stand Creek, close to Walton Creek. It
is in Kirby-le-Soken parish. It was last worked by a man named
Abraham Annis about 1840, when it was thrown out of use owing
to the difficulty of supplying it with fresh water. On the 25-inch
Ordnance Map it was called "New Decoy Pond."
29. Dovercourt Decoy is situated one mile E. of Ramsey,
on a marsh adjoining South Hall. Payne-Gallwey said the pool
could still be traced though it had not been worked for sixty
years.
30. Roydon Hall Decoy was placed near Roydon Hall,
S. of Stour Wood, one mile W. of Ramsey, and four miles E. of
Bradfield. Payne-Gallwey, writing in 1886, states that though
worked in present memory no details are available.
31. Old Decoy is placed half-a-mile E. of Jacques Hall,
the same distance S. of Jacques Bay, on the Stour, a mile N.E. of
Bradfield, and 300 paces south of the Harwich and Manningtree
Railway. Payne-Gallwey, writing in 1886, states that the pond
was quite filled up and its enclosure alone remained ; no further
particulars were obtainable. It was known also as Jacques Hall
Old Decoy.
32. Jacques Hall Decoy was three-quarters of a mile S.
of No. 31, one mile S.E. from Bradfield, 300 paces E. of Bluehouse