CHAP, ii.] THE THIRD DA Y. 63 



provisions made against the destruction of fish : and though I 

 profess no knowledge of the law, yet I am sure the regulation of 

 these defects might be easily mended. But I remember that a 

 wise friend of mine did usually say, " That which is everybody's 

 business is nobody's business : " if it were otherwise, there could 

 not be so many nets and fish, that are under the statute size, sold 

 daily amongst us ; and of which the conservators of the waters 

 should be ashamed.* 



But, above all, the taking fish in spawning-time may be said to 

 be against nature : it is like taking the dam on the nest when she 

 hatches her young, a sin so against nature that Almighty God 

 hath in the Levitical law made a law against it.f 



But the poor fish have enemies enough besides such unnatural 

 fishermen ; as, namely, the Otters that I spake of, the Cormorant, 

 the Bittern, the Osprey, the Seagull, the Hern, the King-fisher, 

 the Gorara, the Puet, the Swan, Goose, Duck, and the Craber, 

 which some call the Water-rat : against all which any honest man 

 may make a just quarrel, but I will not ; I will leave them to be 

 quarrelled with and killed by others, for I am not of a cruel nature, 

 I love to kill nothing but fish. 



And, now, to your question concerning your host. To speak 

 truly, he is not to me a good companion, for most of his conceits 

 were either Scripture jests, or lascivious jests ; for which I count 

 no man witty : for the devil will help a man, that way inclined, to 

 the first ; and his own corrupt nature, which he always carries 

 with him, to the latter. But a companion that feasts the company 



said waters in the time aforesaid. And in the parts where such rivers be, there shall be 

 assigned and sworn good and sufficient conservators of this statute, as it is ordained in 

 the said Statute of Westminster, and that they shall punish the offenders after the pain 

 Contained in the same statute, without any favour thereof to be showed.' 



By Statute 17 Rich. II. c. 9, all justices of the peace were constituted conservators of 

 the stat. 13 Edw. I., with power to appoint under-conservators ; and the lord mayor was 

 appointed conservator of that statute in the Thames. Various statutes have since been 

 enacted for preserving the spawn and fry of fish. See Index to the Statutes at Large, 

 articles " Fish," " Salmon," and " Rivers." 



In the 8 Rich. II., 1384, the Commons complained that in the Thames, Medway, and 

 other great rivers, there was an abundance of the fry of fish, that is to say, of " Troutes, 

 Samons, Pykes, Roches, Barbils," and other fish, which fry, if preserved, would pro- 

 duce great profit to the lords and commons of the land ; but that diverse persons dwell- 

 ing near those rivers, took the fry with their '* subtils reetz," and other " subtils instru 

 ments," and sold it as food for pigs for a penny a bushel, and sometimes for six eggs a 

 bushel. They therefore prayed that no fish might be taken with any net unless the 

 mesh was of the size ordained by the former statute. The king commanded that the 

 said statute should be kept and put in due execution. Rot- Parl. vol. iii. p. 200. 



* See note to page 63. 



t The command alluded to occurs in Deuteronomy, chap. xxii. ver. 6 and 7 : " If a 

 bird's nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree, or on the ground, whether 

 they be young ones, or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, 

 thou shalt not take the dam with the young : but thou shall in any wise let the dam go, 

 and take the young to thee ; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest pro- 

 long thy days." 



