THE SALMON. 163 



modern writers have chosen to consider the names as applied to the same 

 fish. According to Couch, the ancient British name is given in an MS. 

 in the Cotton Library as Ehoe, as also by Pryce, in Cornwall, and Pennant, 

 on the authority of Richard Morris, Esq., Gleissiedyn, Eog, and Maran ; 

 but, although not British, the modern designation is not derived from a 

 Greek or Roman root, and will rather be found in the name of the river 

 Salmona, which passes into the Moselle, where this fish was found in 

 abundance, and whence, perhaps, the name was brought into our 

 country by men who had been acquainted with the salmon in both 

 these regions. 



It seems probable that either the sea trout or the peel is the salar of 

 the poet. Couch also says: "We believe that a figure of the salmon 

 will be found stamped on some Samian or ancient Roman pottery, as 

 represented in the ' Intellectual Observer ' for November, 1864, where 

 even the young is shown with the bag of the egg attached at the throat 

 no small proof that there were some in remote times who studied 

 these things." It is clear, therefore, that the Romans of ancient nations 

 alone knew of the salmon. 



It is equally clear that whether in a fresh or salt state it has been 

 always an article of considerable importance, at least in Britain. In the 

 fourteenth century we are informed, in the Life of Thomas A'Kempis, 

 that the love of that pious writer for the Book of Psalms was compared 

 by his brother monks to their love for salmon, and the writer adds, 

 "it is an exceedingly delicious fish." That in some places it was scarce 

 and bore a high price, and was a subject of complaint in the fiftieth year 

 of Edward III., appears from a petition presented to the Crown, which 

 prayed that, " whereas the salmon and other fish in the Thames were 

 taken and destroyed by engines placed to catch the fry, which fry 

 was then used for feeding pigs, a law might be passed to take up all 

 the trunks between London and the sea, and that the river guardians 

 suffer no net but of large mesh." The petition, which is in French, thus 

 ends : " awaiting which, most redoubtable Lord, if it shall please your 

 Highness then to make order for the next three years, all your people 

 repairing to London or bordering the river shall buy as good a salmon 

 for two shillings as they now get for ten." ("Notes and Queries," 1855). 



Notwithstanding the preceding, it appears from "Heraldry of Fish," 

 that in remote times an offering of fish had been allowed, and was for 

 several centuries claimed and allowed to the Abbot of St. Peter's in 

 Westminster, on the plea that when St. Peter consecrated that church he 

 made a grant to the convent of a tithe of all the salmon caught in the 

 Thames under the Lord Mayor's jurisdiction, which is from Yantlett 

 Creek to the stone near Staines Bridge. To a failure of this tribute haa 



M2 



