CHAPTER XL 



FISHES. 



HuNGEEFORD trowtes are very much celebrated, and there are also good ones at Maryborough 

 and at Ramesbury. In the gravelly stream at Slaughtenford are excellent troutes ; but, though I 

 say it, there are none better in England than at Nawle, which is the source of the streame of Broad 

 Chalke, a mile above it ; but half a mile below Chalke, they are not so good. King Charles I. loved 

 a trout above all fresh fish ; and when he came to Wilton, as he commonly did every summer, the 

 Earle of Pembroke was wont to send for these trowtes for his majesties eating. 



The- eeles at Maryborough are incomparable ; silver eeles, truly almost as good as a trout. In 

 y e last great frost, 168-, when the Thames was frozen over, there were as many eeles killed by frost 

 at the poole at the hermitage at Broad Chalke as would fill a coule ; and when they were found 

 dead, they were all curled up like cables. [" Coul, a tub or vessel with two ears." Bailey's Dic- 

 tionary. J. B.] 



Umbers are in the river Nadder, and so to Christ Church ; but the late improvement of drowning 

 the meadowes hath made them scarce. They are only in the river Humber besides. [Aubrey's 

 friend, Sir James Long, mentions these fish as " graylings, or umbers." They are best known by 

 the former name. Dr. Maton states that they are still to be found in the Avon, at Downton, where 

 Walton speaks of them as being caught in his time. Mr. Hatcher says that "the umber abounds in 

 the waters between Wilton and Salisbury." (History of Salisbury, p. 689.) J. B.] 



Crafish are very plenty at Salisbury ; but the chicfest places for them Hungerford and Newbury : 

 they are also at Ramesbury, and in the Avon at Chippenham. 



" Greeke, carps, turkey-cocks, and beere, 

 Came into England all in a yeare." 



In the North Avon are sometimes taken carpes which are extraordinary good. [Besides giving 

 " the best way of dressing a carpe," Aubrey has annexed to his original manuscript a piece of 

 paper, within the folds of which is inclosed a small bone. The paper bears the following inscription : 

 " 1660. The bone found in the head of a carpe. Vide Schroderi. It is a good medicine for the 

 apoplexie or falling sickness ; I forget whether." Aubrey's reference is to " Zoology ; or the History 

 of Animals, as they are useful in Physic and Chirurgery ; by John Schroderus, M.D. of Francfort. 

 Done into English by T. Bateson. London, 1659, 8vo." 



When a boy I caught many of these fish in the pond at Kington St. Michael, both by angling 



