b INTRODUCTION. 



rights of fishing in the Severn at Bridgnorth, 

 and who obtained a bull from Pope Honorins 

 confirming them in their rights. In 1160 the 

 Abbot of Salop, with the consent of his chapter, is 

 found granting to Philip Fitz- Stephen and his heirs 

 the fishery of Sutton (piscarium de Sutana), and 

 lands near the said fishery. These monks also had 

 fisheries at Binnal, a few miles from Willey ; and it 

 is well known that they introduced into our rivers 

 several varieties of fish not previously common 

 thereto, but which now afibrd sport to the angler. 



Fishing, it is true, may have been followed more 

 as a remunerative exercise by some members of 

 these religious houses, still it did not fail to com- 

 mend itself as an attractive art and a harmless 

 recreation congenial to a spirit of contemplation 

 and reflection to many distinguished ecclesiastics. 

 That the Severn of that day abounded in fish 

 much more than at present is shown by Bishop 

 Lyttleton, who takes some pains to describe it at 

 Arley, and who explains the construction of the 

 coracle and its uses in fishing, the only difierence 

 between it both then and now, and that of early 

 British times, being that the latter was covered 

 with a horse's hide. 



