THE COOKERY OF THE SALMON 205 



semi-starvation, when agriculture and pasturing were 

 in their infancy. When the cruel Norman forest 

 laws were enforced by the Angevin kings, and before 

 the Barons had compelled John to set his hand to 

 the Great Charter, the common law prohibited the 

 monopoly of salmon fishings by the Crown or its 

 grantees, and ordered the suppression of all weirs or 

 obstructions. Now, perhaps the nearest locality 

 where salmon are to be taken in profusion is Iceland. 

 There the natives hunt them towards the nets or 

 traps as if they were driving a cover for hares and 

 pheasants, and you may see some half-hundred fine 

 fish taken out of a box— the produce of the single 

 twenty-four hours. 



The most distinguished southern anglers who 

 have visited Scotland in modern days were Scrope 

 and Sir Humphry Davy. Both were familiar friends 

 of Scott, and frequent guests at Abbotsford, and 

 both have been immortalised in the biography. Sir 

 Humphry, in his old hat, festooned with casting lines, 

 was a conspicuous figure at the morning meet on the 

 . lawn, which, Lockhart said, should have been painted 

 by Wilkie. Sir Humphry's ' Salmonia ' was sharply 

 criticised by Wilson in an essay — perhaps for the reason 

 that two of a trade can never agree. Yet the personal 

 fishing feats of the Professor should have made him 



