ON THE PRICE OF FISH. 533 



1491, again at Cambridge, when it is 4.$-. 5^.; in 1562, at Bury 

 St. Edmunds, at 35-. 6\d^ where salt eels by the dozen are at 

 IDS. yd., and the entry probably is of small fresh fish 1 . 



In 1530-33 eels are bought at Durham by the gag, which we 

 are told in 1532 (Vol. Ill, p. 327 iii.) was six in number. These 

 eels must have been very large, for the price, 4.$-. 4^. in 1530, 

 4^. io\d. in 1531, 6s. Q\d. in 1532, and 4s. 6d. in 1533, appears 

 to be the same as that paid for a firkin. But eels are also sold 

 by the dozen, by the score, and by the hundred. Fourteen 

 entries by the score, all at Cambridge, between 1466 and 1534, 

 give an average of 45-. 2|</., the highest price being 5.9. yd. in 

 1482, the lowest 3^. ^d. The dozen is clearly of two qualities 

 or sizes. The largest, described as Holland eels, are 6s. $d. at 

 Cambridge in 1558, Ss. in 1560 at Oxford, IDS. yd. at Cam- 

 bridge in 1569, IQS. at Oxford in 1564, 8s. in 1565, and 6s. 

 in 1571 also at Oxford; while the smaller fish sell at is. 8d., 

 is. *]d., 2s., is. iod., and similar sums. Fifteen entries by the 

 hundred between 1427 and 1532 give an average of 23 s. 8$d. 

 On one occasion, in 1456 at Cambridge, eels are bought by 

 the soke or soken at Ss. 8d. 



Salt congers are bought in 1404 at 3.$-., in 1406 at is. i$d., 

 in 1451 at 6d. each, in 1456 at is., in 1527 at is. >jd., in 1534 

 at 4s. 8d. y and in 1537 at 5.$-. 



LING, COD, &c. The fish on which our ancestors most 

 depended for winter and lenten fare were the various kinds of 

 cod obtained by distant and deep-sea fishing ofT the coast of 

 the Orkney and Shetland Islands, and Iceland. With the 

 hope of securing a part of this lucrative trade in Iceland, at 

 first monopolised by the Scarborough fishermen, the men of 

 Bristol, as we are informed by the author of the Libel of 

 English Policy 2 , made use in the early part of the fifteenth 



1 In 1560 Magdalen College, Oxford, buys salt eels of Holland produce at 8s. the 

 dozen. Perhaps the stubs were of this origin, and the London fish were imports. 



2 I am informed by Mr. Thompson of the British Museum, that the authorship of 

 this work is to be assigned almost certainly to Adam de Moleyns, Bishop of Chichester 

 and Lord Privy Seal, who was murdered Jan. 9, 1450, at Portsmouth. See Gascoigne, 

 Loci e libro veritatum. 



