In these fens are abundance of those admirable pieces of art called
decoys that is to say, places so adapted for the harbour and
shelter of wild fowl, and then furnished with a breed of those they
call decoy ducks, who are taught to allure and entice their kind to
the places they belong to, that it is incredible what quantities of
wild fowl of all sorts, duck, mallard, teal, widgeon, &c., they
take in those decoys every week during the season; it may, indeed,
be guessed at a little by this, that there is a decoy not far from
Ely which pays to the landlord, Sir Thomas Hare, 500 pounds a year
rent, besides the charge of maintaining a great number of servants
for the management; and from which decoy alone, they assured me at
St. Ives (a town on the Ouse, where the fowl they took was always
brought to be sent to London) that they generally sent up three
thousand couple a week.
There are more of these about Peterborough, who send the fowl up
twice a week in waggon-loads at a time, whose waggons before the
late Act of Parliament to regulate carriers I have seen drawn by
ten and twelve horses a-piece, they were laden so heavy.
As these fens appear covered with water, so I observed, too, that
they generally at this latter part of the year appear also covered
with fogs, so that when the downs and higher grounds of the
adjacent country were gilded with the beams of the sun, the Isle of
Ely looked as if wrapped up in blankets, and nothing to be seen but
now and then the lantern or cupola of Ely Minster.
Pages:
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130