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.