EELS. PIKE. 615 



Of all produce of this kind, the dearest, as far as my 

 accounts give me evidence, are those caught in Wythornese, 

 or Wythornesemere, in Yorkshire. These entries give nearly 

 y. Sal. the stick of twenty-five. The other quotations repre- 

 sent much lower values, and probably, except those from 

 Marlborough in 1387 and [390, imply sales of very much 

 smaller fish. All my entries are before the Plague. But my 

 accounts give two prices of salt eels after this event; 

 one in 1392 at 6</., the other in 1398 at 2*., the stick. It 

 is manifest that such variations of price are really variations 

 in size. Conger eels are also bought, at Winchester in 1259, 

 at Braundon in 1327. The latter place gives also an entry of 

 porpoise, three-quarters of which are purchased at 8*/. If this 

 manor be situate, as appears to be the case, in Warwickshire, 

 the porpoise and conger were probably salted. 



PIKE. There is a popular notion, embodied in a rhyming 

 couplet, that this fish was a late introduction. The pike, 

 however, is more likely to have been indigenous, judging from 

 the wide geographical range which it has at present. Nor is 

 it, I think, probable that our forefathers would have voluntarily 

 permitted so voracious a fish in their stews. As may be 

 expected, the price of the fish varies considerably, though it 

 is always high, the lowest rate given being 5^., the highest 

 is. 6d. The earliest date at which they are quoted, if I am 

 right in translating c lupi aquatici' as pike, is in 1277; and if 

 I am correct again in identifying Lambwaith with the modern 

 Lambeth, the produce is that of the Thames. Two years after 

 this date they are found, under the name of c pikerell,' at the 

 same place, for three successive years. They are also taken in 

 the Cherwell, at Gosford piscary; and in the same river at 

 Oxford. With one exception, (an entry from Cambridge 

 under the year 1342,) all other pike are taken from the lower 

 part of the Cherwell, and had probably, in medieval times, 

 as great a repute as the Cherwell pike bears now. If, too, the 

 Cherwell fish five hundred years ago was of about the same 

 size as that which it reaches now., that is from eight to ten 



