46 THE OTSTEE. 



in the offing bespeak the importance of the oyster traffic 

 between it and the Great Metropolis. "What the 

 Lucrine was to the citizen of Eome is the estuary of the 

 Medway with the Swale to the citizen of London. The 

 ''Natives" obtained at Milton are in the highest re- 

 pute, and consumed in every part of England ; nor are 

 the Faversham, Queenborough, and Rochester denizens 

 less so; nor, indeed, any of the "breedy creatures" 

 which are raised in the other beds of the Swale or the 

 Medway. 



The trade in oysters, as we have seen, has been an 

 object of consideration in England for many ages, and 

 now ranks in importance with the herring, pilchard, 

 and other fisheries. The excellence of our oysters made 

 the formation of artificial beds an object of attention 

 soon after the Eoman conquest; and the Kentish and 

 Essex beds show a pedigree in consequence much older- 

 than that of the noble descendant of any jS'orman adven- 

 turer who came over with the Conqueror, claiming, 

 on this head alone, precedence for our '']S"atives" 

 amongst all the oysters of the known world. Eut 

 Britain is the boasted land of liberty, and the ''jS'atives" 

 of one part of her coast boldly assert their equality with 

 the ''Natives" of any other. If London delights in 

 Milton and Colchester oysters, Edinburgh has her 

 "whispered Pandores" and Aberdom's, and Dublin hei 

 Carlingfords^'' and "Powldoodies of Burran;" whilst all 



* The Carlingford oyster is the best in Ireland ; a black' 

 bearded fellow, delicate and of fine flavour, to be eaten ir 

 Dublin alternately with the Redbank oyster, at a magnificeni 

 establishment in Sackville Street, and to be washed down wit! 



