6 14 ON THE PRICE OF FISH. 



packing and salting. They cost the monks 9^. each in bulk, 

 and are thus worth about id. the pound, meat being not more 

 than a farthing. But it seems that these Boxley salmon were 

 cheaper, or less in size than the customary rate. 



On one occasion (1316) a sturgeon is caught at Mortlake. 

 The bailiff of Westshene purchases it for 2,0*. on behalf of the 

 king, and carries it himself to Nottingham b for the king's use. 

 By a statute of the same reign (16 Edw. II. cap. i), all 

 sturgeon, wherever caught, are declared to vest in the Crown 

 by virtue of its dignity or prerogative, and are to be delivered 

 without purchase. In 1399 an< ^ I 3 t ^ ie bailiff of Haneworth 

 buys several barrels of sturgeon on behalf of Roger Bigod, two 

 in the former, five in the latter year. These, of course, were 

 cured fish. 



Lampreys, in the judgment of our forefathers, were the 

 choicest of fish. The accounts contain a few entries, but the 

 price is very various, ranging between 75-. a dozen at Clare in 

 the year 1284, and half a mark (6s. 8*/.) for a single fish at 

 Bridgnorth in 1392. But the price of lampreys must have 

 depended on a variety of considerations, as size, season, and 

 locality, as well as on the demand made for the article. They 

 are quoted as salted on one occasion (1392), when they are cheap. 

 Six entries of fresh lampreys give an average of is. id. 



It is, I believe, said that lampreys are found only in the 

 Severn. But it seems unlikely that they would have been 

 transported from this river to Harlech on the west, and to 

 Clare on the east coast of England and it is more probable that, 

 at this time at least, they had a wider geographical range. 



EELS. My accounts supply me with some information as to 

 the price of this kind of fish, a price which varies greatly. 

 Eels are generally reckoned by the stick of twenty-five, though 

 sometimes by the head. 



b On Monday the l8th of July, 1317, the king held a council at Nottingham, and it 

 was probably on this occasion that the fish was forwarded. The reader will remember 

 that all the years quoted include a considerable part of the year following. Thus 1316 

 is really 1316-17. 



