250 THE GANNET 



to the Gannets and their grease. In 1018 John Taylor, 

 the poet, says, the lord of the Bass profited at least 

 £200 a year by the Gannets, which, although apparently 

 only half the amount Swave had been told, is the same sum 

 which was mentioned to Sir William Brereton on the spot 

 in 1635, and therefore may be considered correct. William 

 Harvey, who was at the Bass in 1641, notes that the sum 

 named to him as rent exceeded credibility, but he does not 

 say how much it was, and the next we hear about it is, in 

 1661, from Ray, who puts the rent at £130. In 1678 it was 

 only £75, so probably it had gradually gone down. Yet 

 the taste for Gannets had not diminished, if we may judge 

 from the encomiums pronounced on them in 1684 by Sir 

 Robert Sibbald. " The art of cookery," says this worthy 

 knight," cannot form a dish of such delicate flavour, and com- 

 bining the tastes of fish and flesh, as a roasted Solan Goose." 

 Slezer termed it the most delicious fowl on the Bass, and 

 other people seem to have held the same opinion about 

 its wonderful qualities, when properly dressed for the table, 

 yet so powerful was the smell of the bird that it could not 

 be cooked indoors. In all the cases here mentioned Professor 

 Hume Brown feels there can be no doubt that English 

 money is intended, and not the coin of Scotland. In his 

 " Essays on Natural History," Dr. John Walker gives a Dr. 

 and Cr. account of the rent of the Bass, and other attendant 



