THAI-, i.] FISH-DINNERS. 23 



its being found in plentiful quantities off the Isle of Wight. 

 Mr. Stewart, the natural history draughtsman, tells me also 

 that he has seen it taken in bushels on many parts of the 

 Clyde, and that at certain seasons, while engaged in taking 

 coal-fish, he has found them so stuffed with whitebait that by 

 holding the large fish by the tail the little silvery whitebait 

 have fallen out in handfuls. The whitebait has become cele- 

 brated from the mode in which it is cooked, and the excuse it 

 affords to Londoners for an afternoon's excursion, as also from 

 its forming a famous dish at the annual fish-dinner of her 

 Majesty's ministers ; but truth compels me to state that there 

 is nothing in whitebait beyond its susceptibility of taking 

 on a flavour from the skill of the cook. It is poor feeding 

 when compared to a dish of sprats, or (an illegal) fry of young- 

 salmon ; and it has been said in joke that an expert cook 

 can make up capital whitebait by means of flour and oil ! 

 But to eat whitebait is a fashion of the season, and the well- 

 served tables of the Greenwich and Blackwall taverns, with 

 their pleasant outlook to the river, and their inducements of 

 chablis and other choice wines and comestibles, are undoubtedly 

 very attractive, whether the persons partaking of these dainties 

 be ministers of state or merchants' clerks. 



The whitebait, however, if I cannot honestly praise it as a 

 table fish, is particularly interesting as an object of natural 

 history, there having been from time to time, as in the case 

 of most other fish, some very learned disputes as to where it 

 comes from, how it grows, and whether or not it be a distinct 

 member of the herring family or the young of some other fish. 

 The w r hitebait which, although found in rivers, is strictly 

 speaking a sea fish is a tiny animal, varying in length, when 

 taken for cooking purposes, from two to four inches, and has 

 never been seen of a greater length than five inches. In 

 appearance it is pale and silvery, with a greenish back, and 

 might to be cooked immediately after being caught ; indeed 



