

ON THE PRICE OF FISH. 537 



Tench is next commonest of the fresh fish. I have twelve 

 entries. This fish, again, very much varies in price, being about 

 \\d. in 1451, and zs. 8d., the highest price found, in 1530. In 

 1533 237 tench are bought for 39 s. 6d. at the same place, 

 Durham, while others, bought also at Durham, are at is. lod. 

 each. Roach, generally from Hickling, are always bought by 

 the hundred, the price varying from is. 4d. to $\d. But the 

 discrepancies are not so considerable, the average being about 

 \v\d. Dace are bought in 1535 several times at Sion at is. 

 the hundred, where also flounders cost u. the hundred in 

 September and $d. the score in October. In 1481 they cost a 

 halfpenny each at Stoke. Again, in 1546 twenty-four plaice 

 cost js. 2,d., i.e. a little over $\d. each, a high price for a poor 

 fish. It was paid, to be sure, at Oxford. In 1507, at the 

 Thornbury feast in December, whiting cost 4^. each. In 1549 

 they were bought at a little over i\d. In 1507 a turbot cost 

 is. 8d. ; in 1535, 3.$-. In 1507 a haddock cost 4^., a gurnard 

 is. 4d. (it should have been of enormous size), and in 1430 a 

 thornback 8d. But in 1532 200 haddocks are bought at zs. the 

 hundred. In 1404 a hundred bream were bought for 40^. ; in 

 1504 two cost $s. 8d. each. In 1562 a carp was bought for %s., 

 a price which confirms the popular view that the fish was of 

 late introduction. The firkin of * nimbus ' of 1533, for which 

 9^. was paid, was perhaps salted turbot. Half a barrel cost 

 i$s. in 1530. 



Our ancestors devoured strange sea-animals, among others 

 the porpoise. There are several entries of this article, the 

 price of which, if there be no error in the accounts, varies ex- 

 ceedingly. In 1444 the Duke of Bucks pays js. lod. for one of 

 these creatures. In 1503 Sion Abbey gives los. for a quarter 

 of the same viand. Unless some indeterminate measure is 

 implied, it is difficult to explain so vast a price. In 1530-3 

 porpoises are bought largely at Durham, at prices varying from 

 15^. to 6s. 8d. in 1530, with an average of us. ^\d. In 1531 

 the range is from 4.$-. to 13,$-., with an average of 9.$-. 3d. In 

 1532 the average is ys. id. In 1533 one porpoise cost is. 8d., 



