ON THE PRICE OF FISH. 607 



in medieval times. Thus we not only read of salt herrings, 

 red and white, but of salmon, eels, sturgeon, lampreys, had- 

 dock, lyng, morucae (which are said to be cod), mulvells, 

 melyng, hake, haburden, cropling, dogdrave, and hard, stock, 

 and salt fish, all of which are cured in this manner. 



We need not, I think, wonder at the fact that fish was so 

 expensive. In its fresh state it was an object of considerable 

 demand, partly because it was prescribed by ecclesiastical regu- 

 lations, partly because it formed so desirable a change from 

 customary diet. Besides, we may be sure that the craft of the 

 fisherman, while it was just as precarious as it is now, was not 

 supplied with the same conveniences as at present ; and, as 

 will be seen below, the cost of fishing materials, as nets, must 

 have been relatively much higher than at present. Nor is it 

 likely that the art of angling had made much progress. Fish- 

 ing tackle must have been very rude and coarse, and very 

 indifferently adapted, when compared with the modern appara- 

 tus, for deceiving fish, all of which were no doubt fully as timid 

 and cautious as at present. 



Herring fisheries were found, as now, off the eastern coast of 

 England, though it is not likely that the English fishermen 

 resorted to the deep sea for the purpose of netting, but must 

 have been obliged to content themselves with such shoals as 

 frequented shallower water. The most enterprising fishermen 

 were, it appears, those of the Low Countries and the Hanse 

 Towns, and the appropriation of fishing-grounds was a pro- 

 minent object in the policy pursued by that ancient commercial 

 league, as it afterwards was with the Dutch. 



As at present, the most important entrepot of the herring 

 fishery was Yarmouth in Norfolk ; and during the earlier part 

 of this enquiry, the entries, chiefly extracted from the rolls of 

 Bigod's estates, are abundant. But they are also found in the 

 extreme north of England, and on the southern coast. If, too, 

 the solitary quotation of pilchards at Elham is to be taken as 

 evidence of the occurrence of that fish on the Kentish coast, 

 it appears that the range taken by this variety of the herring 



