RIVER BULLHEAD. 73 



a particular sound, being a matter of the first consequence : 

 and his hand is as constantly placed under the meal-spout, to 

 ascertain by actual contact the character and qualities of the 

 meal produced. The thumb by a particular movement 

 spreads the sample over the fingers ; the thumb is the guage 

 of the value of the produce, and hence has arisen the sayings 

 of, " Worth a miller's thumb ;" and, " An honest miller 

 hath a golden thumb;"* in reference to the amount of the 

 profit that is the reward of his skill. By this incessant action 

 of the miller's thumb, a peculiarity in its form is produced 

 which is said to resemble exactly the shape of the head of the 

 fish constantly found in the mill-stream, and has obtained for 

 it the name of the Miller's Thumb, which occurs in the 

 comedy of " Wit at several Weapons," by Beaumont and 

 Fletcher, act v. scene i. ; and also in Merrett's " Pinax." 



Although the improved machinery of the present time has 

 diminished the necessity for the miller's skill in the mecha- 

 nical department, the thumb is still constantly resorted to as 

 the best test for the quality of flour. 



This version of the cause of the application of the term 

 Miller's Thumb to our River Bullhead, was communicated 

 to me by the late John Constable, Esq. R.A. ; whose father, 

 being one of those considerable millers with which the counties 

 of Essex and Suffolk abound, was early initiated in all the mys- 

 teries of that peculiar business. He also very kindly lent me 

 a view of an undershot water-mill at Gillingham, worked by 

 a branch of the stream from Stourhead, which is represented 

 in the vignette on the next page. 



The larvae of water insects, ova, and fry, are the food of 

 the Bullhead : it is voracious, and readily caught with a small 

 portion of a red worm. M. Risso says it is eaten in Italy ; 

 and Pallas tells us, that in Russia this fish is used by some 

 as a charm against fever, while others suspend it horizontally, 

 carefully balanced by a single thread and thus poised, but 



* Ray's " Proverbs." 



