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and grayling are thought by some to differ as 

 the herring and pilchard do. But though they 

 may do so in other nations, I think those in 

 England differ nothing but in their names. 

 Aldrovandus says, they be of a trout kind ; and 

 Gesner says, that in his country, which is Swit- 

 zerland, he is accounted the choicest of all fish. 

 And in Italy, he is, in the month of May, so 

 highly valued, that he is sold at a much higher 

 rate than any other fish. The French, which 

 call the chub un mlain, call the umber of the 

 lake Leman un umble chevalier;* and they value 

 the umber or grayling so highly, that they say 

 he feeds on gold; and say, that many have 

 been caught out of their famous river of Loire, 

 out of whose bellies grains of gold have been 

 often taken. And some think that he feeds 

 on water-thyme, and smells of it at his first 

 taking out of the water ; and they may think 

 so with as good reason as we do that our smelts 

 smell like violets at their first being caught, 



such velocity as to give the semblance to the eye of the 

 flitting of a shadow, rather than the actual movement of 

 an animated substance." Bainbridge. 



* A not unfanciful aristocratic distinction, as supposing 

 that elegancy of shape, tenderness of flesh, and delicacy of 

 complexion imply gentility of race. It may have been 

 so in the olden time ; but since money and nobility have 

 been crossed, neither little white ears, nor little white 

 hands, are the " distinctive die" of a sixteen-quartered 

 escutcheon. 



