IV 



OYSTERS UNDER THE ROMANS 105 



we are told that specimens brought from Bruiulisium and even 

 from Britain were placed for a while in the Lucrine Lake, to 

 fatten after their long journey, and also to acquire the esteemed 

 '' Lucrine flavour." 



Oysters are ' in season ' whenever there is an ' r ' in the month, 

 in other words, from September to April. ' Mensibus erratis,' 

 as the poet has it, ' vos ostrea manducatis ! ' It has been com- 

 puted that the quantity annually produced in Great Britain 

 amounts to no less than sixteen hundred million, while in 

 America the number is estimated at five thousaud five hundred 

 million, the value being over thirteen million dollars, and the 

 number of persons employed fifty thousand. Arcachon, one of 

 the principal French oyster-parks, has nearly 10,000 acres of 

 oyster beds, the annual value being from eight to ten million 

 francs; in 1884-85, 178,359,000 oysters were exported from 

 this place alone. In the season 1889-90, 50,000 tons of oysters 

 were consumed in London. 



Few will now be found to echo the poet Gay's opinion : 



'• That man had sure a palate covered o'er 

 With brass or steel, that on the rocky shore 

 First broke the oozy oyster's pearly coat, 

 And risq'd the living morsel down his throat." 



There were halcyon d'djs in England once, when oysters 

 were to be procured at 8d. the bushel. Now it costs exactly 

 that amount before a bushel, brought up the Thames, can even 

 be exposed for sale at Billingsgate (4d. porterage, 4d. market 

 toll), and prime Whitstable natives average from 3|d. to 4d. 

 each. The principal causes of this rise in prices, apart from the 

 increased demand, are (1) over-dredging; (2) ignorant cultiva- 

 tion, and to these ma}^ be added (3) the effect of bad seasons in 

 destroying young oysters, or preventing the spat from maturing. 

 Our own principal beds are those at Whitstable, Rochester, 

 Colchester, Milton (famous for its 'melting' natives), Faver- 

 sham, Queenborough, Burnham, Poole, and Carlingford in Co. 

 Down, and Newhaven, near Edinburgh. 



The oyster-farms at Whitstable, public and private, extend 

 over an area of more than 27 square miles. The principal of 

 these is a kind of joint-stock company, with no other privilege of 

 entrance except birth as a free dredgeman of the town. When 

 a holder dies, his interest dies with him. Twelve directors, 



