430 Mr. J. Couch on the species of Whales 



this instance there were no ladies to require in their garments 

 the stiffening formed by the bones of the animaPs tail, yet at 

 least the oil would serve to light the midnight lamp, supposed 

 to be employed to afford light to his studies ; and a tithe of it 

 was therefore secured by the bishop. This will be seen, from 

 the following extract of a letter from the famous antiquarian 

 herald, Anstis — himself a native of Cornwall — to his patron the 

 Bishop of Exeter; and it is to be observed that, in the grant 

 referred to, the word Balcena, signifying the large whalebone 

 whale only, is not used, but another, which might be interpreted 

 to mean any of the species that was worthy of notice. ^' 1 met 

 with,'^ says he, " an Inspeximus of a grant made by Henry the 

 3rd, wherein is granted to the Bishop of Exon and his successors 

 for ever omnes decimas Craspesiorum within Cornwall and Devon, 

 and is confirmed to them by Edward the 2ncl. This without 

 doubt was of value, otherwise the Bishopps would not have been 

 solicitous to have had a confirmation of itt. But it is a question 

 of what it is, the word not being to be found in any of the 

 Glosaryes, And I have asked many persons whose business lyes 

 among the old Records, who never remember that they mett 

 with any such word. But I think that I have since mett with the 

 meaning thereof in the Patent Rolls of R. 2, wherein are those 

 words de piscibus regalibus vocatis whales sive Graspes, from 

 which word I suppose like Lawyers they make Craspesiorum, 

 But if it only extended to such great fishes, it will be of no great 

 value. — The word Craspisces is used in Bracton, not only for 

 Royall fishes, but for any big fish whatever. And I take the 

 word in the Grant to be of the same signification. Oct. 10. 

 1700.^' 



The doubts of the learned Anstis about the meaning of a name 

 applied by lawyers to a species of animal, of the nature of which 

 they were clearly ignorant, will also apply to the designation 

 given in another document, of which I possess a copy, to some 

 one of the same class of creatures; and of which 1 have not 

 been able to obtain an explanation in any work to which I could 

 obtain access. It is found in a Commission under the Great 

 Seal of Charles the 2nd, in which that sovereign appointed 

 Sir John Trelawny, Baronet, Vice-Admiral of the south coast of 

 Cornwall; and under the authority of which the latter appoints 

 Nicholas Sunders of Truro his Deputy; authorizing the latter 

 therefore '' to serre, secure, recover, recerize and regave — among 

 other rights of the Admiralty — all fishes Royall : namely Stur- 

 geon, Whales, Rigges, Porpusses, Granpoles, and generally 

 whatsoever fish of a great breadth and fulness antiently of right 

 belonging to the Lord High Admiral.^^ I confess my utter 

 ignorance of the creatures here mentioned under the name of 



