CHAPTER XIII. 



THE OYSTER AT HOME. 



MILTON, QUEENSBOROUGH, ROCHESTER, AND FAVERSHAM OYSTERS 



COLCHESTER AND ESSEX BEDS EDINBURGH PANDORES AND 



ABERDOURS DUBLIN CARLINGFORDS AND POWLDOODIES 



CORNISH OYSTERS AND THE HELFORD BEDS POOR TYACKE 



AND HOW HE WAS DONE DREDGERS AND THEIR BOATS 



AULD REEKIE'S civic CEREMONIALS SONG OF THE OYSTER 



ITS VOYAGE TO MARKET AND JOURNEY BY RAIL USEFUL 

 INSTRUCTIONS CONCERNING THE OYSTER. 



When the Romans taught the Britons the construction 

 of oyster-beds, they made a return in kind for some of the 

 luxuries they had derived from our shores. Oyster-beds 

 have long been, and are still, discoverable in various parts 

 of Great Britain. 



The trade in oysters, as we have seen, has been an 

 object of consideration in England for many ages, and 

 now ranks in importance with the herring, pilchard, and 

 other fisheries. The excellence of our oysters made the 

 formation of artificial beds an object of attention soon 

 after the Roman conquest ; and the Kentish and Essex 

 beds show a pedigree in consequence much older than 

 that of the noble descendant of any Norman adventurer 

 who came over with the Conqueror, claiming, on this 



