_Miscellaneous observations continued—Fen reeds and their
uses—Starlings—Tame Geese_, _and singular management of
them—Insalubriousness of Marshland—Ancient celebrity of the
Smeeth—Decoys_.
Many parts of the fens abound with a remarkable species of _reeds_, which
appear in summer, at some distance, like extensive fields of corn. In
autumn, and at the approach of winter, they are resorted to by
innumerable flocks of Starlings, which then subsist upon the seeds of
those plants, and lodge or roost among their branches; from whence, when
scared, they ascend sometimes in such vast numbers as to appear in the
sky like a thick cloud, exhibiting a very strange and striking spectacle
to those beholders who are unused to the curious phenomena of this
singular country. The fen-fowlers, in their long boats, take these birds
sometimes by surprize, when thickly assembled among those reeds, and with
their long guns make prodigious havock among them. Myriads of them are
so destroyed, and become a considerable article of food in the latter
months of the year.
The reeds to which these birds resort, and from whose seed, for many
months, they derive a great part of their subsistence, are no less
remarkable in another respect: vast quantities of them are cut down, or
reaped like corn, in the latter part of summer; being afterward carefully
dried and dressed, they are tied up in bundles or sheaves, made up into
stacks or ricks, and sold for coverings of houses, making perhaps the
best _thatch_ in the world. Great numbers of houses and barns, and even
some churches are covered with them about the Fens and Marshland, and the
adjoining parts of Norfolk. They are laid on very thick, curiously, and
judiciously, and constitute a very durable, as well as neat covering,
which is said to last sometimes thirty or forty years, with a little
shaving and trimming. It has been observed of thatch coverings (those
made of these reeds must be particularly so) that they make the coolest
houses in summer, and the warmest in winter of all coverings whatever;
being more impervious both to heat and cold than any other materials used
for the same purpose. Thatching is executed in this country in a style
of superior neatness, as well as firmness, and better calculated for
durability, than the writer of this has known any where else except,
perhaps, in the _Vale of Glamorgan_, where a similar method is used. The
material there, indeed is wheat straw, and not reeds, which in that
country cannot be obtained in any large quantity; but the process of
dressing and preparing the materials, as well as the method of laying
them on, seem to be there and here much alike. It seems somewhat
remarkable that districts so widely separated, and which are in most
other respects so very dissimilar, should yet in this particular bear so
near and striking a resemblance to each other. {79a}
Some parts of the Fens, especially on the Lincolnshire side, have been
long famous for breeding vast flocks of tame _Geese_, of which great
numbers are usually sent alive to the London markets.—They have also a
remarkable custom of _plucking_ the geese, and stripping them of their
quills and feathers repeatedly every year, {79b} and so render each of
them conformable to _Plato’s_ memorable definition of _man_, “a
two-legged, unfeathered animal:” in which view it might be called
_humanizing_ the poor geese, or converting them into so many human
beings. The practice however, has been by many thought _inhuman_, and
barbarous, as it must put the poor creatures into no small degree of
pain; {80a} but as it is gainful to the owners, in yielding them a far
greater quantity of feathers than they would otherwise produce, there is
no great prospect of its being very soon, if ever, discontinued.
The geese, during the breeding season, are lodged in the same houses with
the inhabitants, and even in their very bedchambers. In every apartment
are three rows of coarse wicker pens, placed one above another. Each
bird has a separate lodge, divided from the other, which it keeps
possession of during the time of sitting. A gozzard, or gooseherd,
attends the flock, and twice a day drives the whole to water, then brings
them back to their habitation, helping those that live in the upper
stories to their nests, without ever misplacing a single bird. {80b}
Another odd custom in some parts of this same country, is that of
preparing _cow-dung_, and converting it into _fuel_, by forming it, in a
wet state, into the shape of turf, and afterward drying it in the sun.
It yields a strong disagreeable smell in burning, besides its depriving
the farmer of a very large quantity of his best manure. Materials for
fuel must, surely, have been very scarce in the country when this strange
expedient or substitute was first adopted.
Marshland and the Fens are not deemed healthy, except, perhaps, to
consumptive persons, who are said to be sometimes sent thither on account
of the softness of the air. To most others the country is unhealthy, and
subject to aguish disorders, which has always been the case, it seems,
especially in Marshland; hence an ague is in Norfolk proverbially called
_the Marshland Bailiff_, and a person afflicted with that disorder is
said to be _arrested by the Bailiff of Marshland_.—Instead of hedgerows
the fields are here generally enclosed with deep dikes, which for the
most part of the year are filled with water, to which, probably, we are
chiefly to ascribe the unhealthiness of the country; or rather to the
putrid state of these dikes and stagnant waters, in the latter part of
summer and the autumn. {81}
In passing along the road through this remarkable country, a stranger,
from the hilly parts, cannot help being struck at first sight with the
strange appearance of gates and gate-posts erected all about, without any
hedges or visible enclosures to indicate either the necessity, or yet the
utility of them; for as the dikes are not perceptable at a distance, the
land on every side appears in many places like a great open field. A
little time and reflection, however, generally rectify the wondering
traveller’s judgment.
The soil of Marshland is for the most part very good and rich; but no
where more so than in that notable tract called the _Smeeth_, which has
been long celebrated for its uncommon fertility. Till lately it was all
a common belonging to the seven towns of Marshland; and old Authors used
to relate that it constantly fed 30,000 Sheep, with abundance besides of
the great cattle of the seven towns. So famous was this tract for the
richness and luxuriance of its soil, at the accession of _James_ I, that
a courtier is said to have mentioned it then to that monarch, as one of
the most fertile spots in all his English dominions; adding “that if over
night a wand or rod were laid on the bare ground, it would, by the next
morning, be covered with grass, of that night’s growth, so as not then to
be discerned.” To which his majesty is said jocosely to reply, “that
some parts of _Scotland_ far exceeded that, for that he himself knew some
grounds there, where if an _horse_ were put in over night it could not be
discerned the next morning;” alluding, it seems, to some of the bogs in
that country.—The Smeeth has been of late enclosed, drained, and
considerably improved. A great part of it has been ploughed up, and the
crops produced are said to be in general very abundant, and likely to
continue so. It may therefore be presumed, that the enclosing of the
Smeeth will prove no detriment, but rather an advantage to the public;
and also that its celebrity, as a most fertile spot, will not be
diminished by its being no longer an open and unimproved common.
These parts have been long noted for great numbers of _Decoys_. They are
said to be now much less numerous than formerly, owing, seemingly, to the
various and progressive improvements that have taken place of late years,
especially in Lincolnshire, and the consequent decrease of the aquatic
wild-fowl. There are still, however, a good many decoys to be found in
different places, of which the best is said to be that of _Lakenheath_,
on the borders of Suffolk, from which very considerable numbers of
aquatic wild-fowl of different kinds are usually sent to the London
Markets.—An authentic account of this singular and curious contrivance,
it being in general but ill understood, and but imperfectly described in
books, shall be here inserted, as it is presumed it will not prove
unacceptable to the reader.
A decoy is generally made where there is a large pond surrounded with
wood, and beyond that a marshy uncultivated country. If the piece of
water is not thus surrounded, it will be attended with the noise and
other accidents, which may be expected to frighten the wild-fowl from a
quiet haunt where they mean to sleep during the day time in security. If
such noises or disturbances are wilful, an action will lie against the
disturbers. As soon as the evening sets in, the decoy _rises_ (as the
term is) and the wild fowl feeds during the night. If the evening be
still, the noise of their wings, during their flight, is heard at a very
great distance, and is a pleasing, though melancholy sound. The _rising_
of the decoy in the evening is, in Somersetshire, called _radding_. The
decoy-ducks are fed with hempseed, which is thrown over the skreen in
small quantities, to bring them forward into the pipes or canals, and to
allure the wild-fowl to follow as this seed floats. There are several
_pipes_, as they are called, which lead up a narrow ditch that closes at
last with a funnel net. Over these pipes, (which grow narrower from
their first entrance) is a continued arch of netting, suspended on hoops.
It is necessary to have a pipe, or ditch for almost every wind that can
blow, as upon this circumstance it depends which pipe the fowl will take
to; and the Decoy-man always keeps on the _windward_ side of the ducks,
holding near his mouth a lighted turf, to prevent his breath or effluvia
reaching their sagacious nostrils. All along each pipe, at certain
intervals are placed skreens, made of reeds, so situated and contrived,
that it is impossible the wild fowl should see the decoy-man before they
have passed on toward the end of the pipes where the purse net is placed.
The inducement of the wildfowl to go up one of these pipes is, because
the decoy-ducks, trained to this, lead the way, either after hearing the
whistle of the decoy-man, or enticed by the hempseed: the latter will
dive underwater or swim quietly away, while the wildfowl fly on and are
taken in the purse net. It often happens, however, that the wildfowl are
in such a state of sleepiness and dozing, that they will not follow the
decoy-ducks. Use is then generally made of a dog, that has been taught
his lesson: he passes backward and forward, between the reed skreens, (in
which are little holes, both for the decoy-man to see, and the little dog
to pass through); this attracts the eye of the wild-fowl, who, not
choosing to be interrupted, advance toward the small contemptible animal,
that they may drive him away. The dog all the time, by the directions of
the decoy-man, plays among the skreens of reeds nearer and nearer to the
purse net; till at last, perhaps, the decoy-man appears behind a skreen,
and the wild-fowl not daring to pass by him in return, nor being able to
escape upward, on account of the net covering, rush on into the purse
net. Sometimes the dog will not attract their attention, unless a red
handkerchief, or something very singular be put about him. The general
season for catching fowls in Decoys is from the end of October till
February; the taking of them earlier is prohibited by an act of 10. Geo.
II. c. 32. which forbids it from June 1, to October 1, under a penalty of
5_s._ for each bird destroyed within that time. Most of the Decoys of
this kingdom are in the Counties bordering on the great level of the
Fens. There are some also in Somersetshire. Lincolnshire used to be the
most noted county for its decoys, and it is probably so still. Amazing
numbers of ducks, widgeons and teals, used to be taken there and sent to
the London markets. Some years ago, within one season, and from ten
decoys in the neighbourhood of Waynfleet, the number amounted to 31,200
in which were included several other species of ducks. The decoys are
said to be commonly let at a certain annual rent, from 10 to a £100. It
was customary formerly to have in the fens an annual driving of the young
ducks before they took wing. Numbers of people assembled on the
occasion, who beat a vast tract, and forced the birds into a net placed
at the spot where, the sport was to terminate.—150 dozens have been taken
at once; but the practice being thought detrimental, has been abolished
by act of Parliament.