THE EEL. 355 



eel nets everywhere, cast them into the sea, and, by the help of God, took 

 three hundred fishes of several sorts, the which, being divided into three 

 parts, they gave a hundred to the poor, a hundred to those of whom 

 they had the nets, and kept a hundred for their own use." Mr. Charles 

 Knight also says, speaking of these times, "The consumption of this 

 species of fish seems, from many incidental circumstances, to have been 

 very great. Kents were paid in eels, boundaries of lands were defined 

 by eel dykes, and the monasteries required a regular supply from their 

 tenants and dependents." The piscicultural arrangements to be seen at 

 Stanton Harcourt (now in ruins) also strengthen the opinion that the eel 

 was specially cared for. In the "Dialogues of Alfric" there is to be 

 found the following colloquy with a fisherman, showing to a great extent 

 the importance of fish culture in those days : 



What gettest thou by thine art ? 



Big loaves, clothing, and money. 



How do you take them ? 



I ascend my ship and cast my net into the river; I also throw in a hook, a bait, and 

 a rod. 



Suppose the fishes are unclean ? 



I throw the unclean out and take the clean for food. 



Where do jou sell your fish ? 



In a city. 



Who buys them ? 



The citizens; I cannot take so many as I can sell. 



What fishes do you take ? 



Eels, haddocks, minnies (minnows'.? ) and eel pouts, skate and lamprey, and whatever 

 swims in the river. 



This dialogue refers .to three centuries after Wilfrid had taught the 

 people to fish for something more than eels alone, and is an interesting 

 and reliable evidence of what was then being done with the fresh-water 

 fisheries. 



Since this time considerable advances in the supply and demand for 

 eels have been made. Mr. Henry Mayhew, writing in 1861, calculates 

 that every year no fewer than 9,797,760 eels are sold at Billingsgate alone ; 

 and, of course, this immense number does not by any means represent 

 the aggregate of their sale in even the metropolis. Notwithstanding, the 

 price for live eels is rarely less than 9d. per pound. 



Previous to this time, considerably, old Stowe indicates that the 

 Thames almost entirely supplied London with " sweet and fat salmons, 

 . . . barbels, trouts, chevens, perches, roaches, daces, gudgeons, eels, 

 &c." "Yet," adds he, "this famous river complaineth commonly of 

 no want, but the more it loseth at one time it gaineth at another." I 

 fancy the consternation of old Stowe weie he to awake to-day and find 

 the eels and "sweet and fat salmons" almost entirely supplied from 

 Holland and Ireland and the Scotch fisheries, and the Thames in its lower 



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