148 BRITISH FRESH-WATER FISHES 
tench, and quotes Mr. Masefield, of Ellerton, as having 
done so frequently ;* but doubtless a more brilliant fish 
would attract more pike. 
The flesh of the tench is very variously reported on 
by different writers. Ausonius, writing in the fourth 
century, is perhaps the earliest reference. In his 
tenth idyl, treating of the Moselle, this poet wrote :— 
As food. 
Quis non et virides vulgi solatia tincas 
Norit, et alburnos predam puerilibus hamis, 
Stridentesque focis obsonia plebis alausas.T 
This is neither praise nor blame. Richard Franck, who 
had a fine contempt for coarse fish in general, is more emphatic, 
observing of the tench, ‘ Let me tell you he’s a delicious 
morsel.” Others condemn the meat as insufferably muddy in 
flavour ; but, no doubt, this varies according to the seasonal 
condition of the fish ; and, having regard to its usual stagnant 
haunts, where the mud is often deep and fetid, the tench 
probably improves for the table if submitted to a period of 
purification and feeding in a clean stew-pond. For myself, I 
can testify that it is the only one of the Carp Family that I have 
ever eaten with relish. That was in the month of May, at the 
wayside tavern of Meung-sur-Loire, a village made illustrious 
for ever as the scene chosen by Dumas to introduce the 
immortal d’Artagnan to his million readers. Arriving there 
from Orléans near midday on our bicycles, we were served with 
an excellent déjeuner, whereof the only features that remain 
bright in memory are the good red wine and a dish of small 
tenches delicately fried in oil. 
Except this fleeting interview with the tench on the banks 
of the Loire, my personal acquaintance with this fish is limited 
* British Fresh-water Fishes, p. 49 (1895). 
t+ “Who does not know the green tenches, a boon to the common 
folk ? and the bleak, a prey for schoolboys’ hooks? and shad, hissing on 
the hearths, fish-fare for the people ?” 
