Chapter XIX: Section X

_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.