THE FISHES OF CAMBRIDGESHIRE. 

 By E. VALL^-POPE, M.A., Emmanuel College. 



CAMBRIDGESHIRE is eminently a county of anglers. This 

 fisherman instinct comes from bygone generations, for fishing 

 was once an industry of the county and adjoining districts. 

 It was one of the objections raised against the first drainage of 

 the Fens that many thousands engaged in fishing and fowling 

 would be thrown out of employment. As late as 1749 there 

 was a fish market in Cambridge itself, which was supplied 

 with fresh-water fish from the neighbouring Fens. It was held 

 twice a week, and salmon and sturgeon could be purchased. 



In early days the Cambridgeshire fisheries were numerous 

 and important, a considerable portion of the endowments of 

 the old monastery of Ely being derived from them. From 

 accounts in Dugdale and Camden the amount of fish was 

 enormous. According to Bede the very name of Ely itself is 

 derived from the vast number of eels caught in the vicinity. 

 The importance of these fisheries in ancient days was so great 

 that lawsuits were waged over them. On one occasion the 

 Abbot of St Edmondsbury successfully obtained an injunction 

 against the diverting of the Nene requisite to protect Wisbech 

 and the adjoining country from inundation. The Abbot 

 pleaded that should the course of the Nene be altered, a 

 certain fishery in that district belonging to his Abbey would 

 be ruined. With reference to later times a quotation from 

 an old fragmentary History of Cambridgeshire may be in- 

 structive. It was written in 1749 by one Edmund Carter, and 

 contains a description of the old Cambridge Fish Market of 

 some antiquarian interest. It reads as follows : " The Fish 



