812 TINTERN AND WHALLEY ABBEYS. 



pillar from the doorway, I was much delighted to find 

 there was an old tombstone, overgrown with moss, with 

 the figure of a salmon cut deeply into the stone ; it is 

 not the figure of a fresh-run fish, but an old kelt, with 

 a big beak. On the same tombstone there is a device 

 of three salmon, with their tails interlocked together. 

 I am sorry to say I could not make out the name of the 

 person buried under this tombstone, and would feel 

 most obliged if any antiquarian would kindly help me. 

 My friend, the Vicar of Whalley, near Clitheroe, in 

 Lancashire, showed me his official seal ; it is three sal- 

 mon twisted together, nearly the same as the device on 

 the tombstone at Tintern. This device is also carved 

 over the schoolhouse door. The vicar's house is close 

 to the magnificent ruins of Whalley Abbey. As we are 

 on the antiquities of salmon the following will possibly 

 be interesting : — 



SALMON AND APPRENTICES. 



In nearly all the cathedral towns, as well as in many 

 other parts of the country, I have heard the story of a 

 clause being placed, in olden times, in the indentures of 

 an apprentice, that '' he should not be bound to eat sal- 

 mon more than a certain number of days in the week." 

 I am quite tired of hearing this story, and almost weary 

 of hunting for an actual copy of an apprentice's inden- 

 ture containing this clause. I once was very near get- 

 ting it. Stopping to bait the horses at a little road-side 

 inn near Exeter, the landlady told me this old, old, story; 

 and, moreover, said she knew an old woman who had a 

 copy of an indenture, only she lived "a bit off," and it 

 was too far for her to walk to fetch it. I stopped the 

 driver from taking the horses out of the carriage, and 

 made '' mine hostess " jump in, and drive instantly to 



