A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



the peace as conservators for carrying out the 

 statute of Westminster 8 the first Act which 

 fixes a close time for salmon and that of 13 

 Richard II, stat. i,cap. 19, which, while con- 

 firming the former Act, also prohibits the 

 use of nets called ' stalkers ' and all other nets 

 or engines ' by which the fry or breed of 

 salmons, lampreys, or other fish may in 

 anywise be taken or destroyed in any of the 

 waters of the realm at any time of the year.' * 

 The City of London retained their jurisdic- 

 tion over the fishery of this portion of the 

 Thames the limits of which are marked by 

 City Stone at Staines until the middle of the 

 last century, when it was transferred, together 

 with that relating to the conservancy of 

 navigation, to the Thames Conservancy 

 Board, incorporated by the Thames Conser- 

 vancy Acts of 1858 and i864. 10 The 

 powers thus vested in the conservators of 

 making by-laws for regulating and protecting 

 the fishery were confirmed and extended by 

 the Thames Conservancy Act of 1894," 

 appointing the present Conservators of the 

 River Thames. 



The fishery in the river is at present 

 regulated by the Thames Fishery by-laws 

 issued by the conservators under the order 

 of council of 1893 which extend and apply 

 to the Thames and the Isis and to ' all creeks, 

 inlets, and bends between Teddington in the 

 county of Middlesex and Gautlet Creek in 

 the county of Kent.' lla Above London Bridge 

 only the following instruments and apparatus 

 may be lawfully used in fishing : Rod and 

 line ; flew or seine nets ; seine or draft nets ; 

 single bley nets ; smelt nets ; flounder nets ; 

 minnow nets ; hand or well nets ; landing 

 nets ; casting or bait nets ; and grig wheels. 13 

 Below London Bridge such instruments are 

 limited to : rod and line ; hand lines fished 

 with bait ; trim tram or four beam nets ; 

 and trawl nets. 13 Fixed nets and all devices 

 for catching or hindering fish, spawn, or fry 

 of fish from entering or leaving the river, 

 and the use of spears, and gaffs, except 

 as an accessory in pike-fishing, are prohi- 

 bited. 14 



The close time for salmon and salmon 

 trout is between I September and 3 1 March ; 

 that for trout and char from 1 1 September to 



' 13 Edw. I, stat. i, cap. 47 (1285). 



9 Cf. Hist, and Law of Fisheries, 173-5. 



"21 & 22 Viet. cap. 147, and 27 & 28 Viet, 

 cap. 113; and cf. the Thames Navigation Act, 

 1866 (29 & 30 Viet. cap. 89). 



11 57 & 58 Viet. cap. 187 (Local). 



IU Bylaw 3. " Bylaw 4. 



11 Bylaw 1 2. " Bylaws 15-19. 



31 March ; that for smelts between 25 March 

 and 27 July, and that for lamperns between 

 I April and 24 August ; while in the river 

 above London Bridge fishing with rod and line 

 is prohibited from 15 March to June except 

 in the case of rod fishing for trout with an 

 artificial fly or with a spinning or live bait. 15 

 Fishing except with rod and line, and by 

 registered fishermen using grig wheels for 

 taking eels in season is prohibited in stations 

 which have been staked out and marked by 

 the conservators for the preservation and 

 incubation of fish. These stations are at six 

 places on the Surrey side of the river, namely 

 at Richmond, Kingston, Thames Ditton, 

 Walton, Weybridge, and Chertsey, 18 and at 

 the same number in Middlesex, namely, 

 Twickenham, Hampton, Sunbury, Shepperton, 

 Penton Hook, and Staines. 



The abundance and variety of fish yielded 

 by the Thames as late as the first quarter of 

 the nineteenth century will be evident from 

 the following list contained in Cooke's 

 Topographical and Statistical Description of Mid- 

 dlesex : 



Salmon, flounders, smelt, shad, trout, grayling, 

 perch, carp, tench, barbel, chub, roach, dace, 

 gudgen (/;'<), pike, eels, lamprey, bleak, ruffee, stur- 

 gen (sic'), bass, mullet, turbot, sole, plaice, dab, 

 skate, thornback, halibut, pearl whiting, haddock, 

 oyster, muscles (sic), cockles, crab, prawns, red and 

 white shrimps, craw fish, and others." 



The existence in the Thames of so many 

 sea fish, and notably of mussels, may sound, 

 perhaps, hardly credible, but the writer has 

 been informed by an octogenarian relative 

 still living that the piles of Old London 

 Bridge were incrusted with mussels and that 

 the water up to that point, then limpid and 

 green in colour, was quite brackish. Within 

 thirty years of the publication of the above 

 list, however, the supply of fish had already 

 begun to diminish and many of the varieties 

 enumerated by Cooke, notably the salmon, 

 had forsaken the river. HofHand writing 

 of the Thames in his British dngler's Manual 

 says : 



Salmon have been driven from the river by the 

 gasworks and steam navigation, not one having 

 been caught to my knowledge during the last 

 twelve or fourteen years ; although many were 

 taken formerly of a peculiarly fine quality within 

 my recollection at Mortlake, Isleworth, and other 

 places. The brandling, salmon pink, or skegger, 

 has also disappeared ; the last salmon I saw taken, 



" Bylaws 20-5. " Bylaws 26-8. 



17 p. 39. Cooke's work was published in 

 1819. 



268 



