DECOYS AND WILD-FOWLING IN ESSEX.
49
their feed beyond the reach of interruption, or if driven from it by the tide, they
hasten to the various decoy-ponds upon that river to repose themselves."
Daniel also says (6. ii. 471) :—
"A decoy in some seasons is astonishingly lucrative. In 1795, the Tilling-
ham Decoy in Essex, at that time in the occupation of Mr. Mascall, netted,
after every expense, upwards of eight hundred pounds, and the only birds
taken were Duck and Mallard. In 1799, ten thousand head of Wigeon, Teal,
and Wild Ducks were caught in a decoy by the Rev. Bate Dudley in Essex."
Writing in 1802, he says (6. ii. 475) :—
"At the pond of Mr. Buxton, at Goldhanger in Essex, as many Pochards
have been taken at one drop as filled a waggon, so as to require four stout
horses to carry them away; and the lower birds in the pens have been known
to be killed and pressed entirely flat, from the numbers of their companions
heaped up above them."
In more recent times, the Rev. J. C. Atkinson writes (36. 143):—
" Within my own recollection many decoys on the Essex coast were wrought
constantly and successfully, which for many years now have been dismantled
and unused. I well remember, when I was a lad of ten or twelve, being at a
house in Tolleshunt D'Arcy, on a farm belonging to which was an active decoy,
and seeing the birds which had been taken in the course of one morning. The
numbers were so great that many of the undermost ducks, where the great accu-
mulation had taken place at the end of the 'pipe,' had died of pressure and
suffocation, and some even were sensibly flattened by the superincumbent weight
of their fellows."
Mr. Thos. Kemble, of Runwell Hall, speaking of Bradwell in
his Sporting Reminiscences of an Old Squire, says :—
" I am now going to relate what possibly sportsmen who go down there at the
present day for wild-fowl shooting will not believe. I have seen the sky darkened
with Wild-geese covering a space of half a mile by a quarter of a mile, as
thick as manure spread upon the ground, and making a noise which I could only
compare with fifty packs of hounds in full cry. I have also seen seven acres at
low water covered with Wigeon, Curlew and Ducks, making such a noise that I
could not hear my brother talking to me a few yards off. Colonel Russell was off
the coast in his yacht. He told me that he had sent off from Maldon to London
upwards of two tons of Geese."
A recent writer on this subject in a popular paper says :—•
" The Essex coast has always been considered one of the best wild-fowling
grounds in the country, and that bit between Dovercourt and Clacton-on-Sea,
and such places as the backwaters of the Wash, with Landermere, Pewit Island,
and Horsey Island in the neighbourhood, often afford capital sport. Of course,
like other places within easy distance of large cities, the birds are not so plentiful
as they used to be, but for those who are strong and have the nerve to brave the
cold and difficulties which half-frozen ditches and a continual pelting of storms
of hail and snow present, much good wild-fowling may still be had Years ago
wild-fowling was principally practised by the hardy race who employ their time in
fishing during the summer, but in the winter pursue the feathered tribes for the
support of themselves and families, and from their exertions the markets were
partly supplied. However, the quest is now followed by amateurs as a recreation,