16 THE ADVENTURES 



Mayor of Chester, laid claim to certain portions 

 of the river as tenaciously as of any other 

 manor or domain. 



Of these grants and privileges in the upper 

 parts of the river scarcely any records are left, 

 though no doubt they existed. The Lords of 

 the Manor, and large landed proprietors probably 

 exercised arbitrary rights in their own immediate 

 neighbourhood, and monopolised the fishing 

 within certain limits ; but it was not likely that 

 they would neglect to substantiate their authority 

 by deeds, which it was easy for them to procure. 

 A river which was so valuable for its fishery at 

 Chester, cannot but have been also richly 

 abundant in the neighbourhood of Bangor 

 Monachorum and Valle Crucis Abbey ; but the 

 records concerning both secular and ecclesiastical 

 estates in a remote country, are not so easily 

 accessible as those relating to a city of ancient 

 privileges and importance, and are either hidden 

 in private collections or have ceased to exist. 



The only records we have, therefore, of the 

 Fishery of the Dee relate chiefly to Chester. 

 The first of them occurs in the charter of Hugh 

 Lupus to the Monks of St, Werburgh, in 

 1093. The original of this charter is lost, 

 but it is recapitulated in a confirmatory charter 

 from the second Earl, Eanulph, which has been 



