144 FISHES AND FISHING, 



but they were all gone, and to mark the places of 

 their exit there were round most of the holes a coating 

 of slime. I immediately enlarged all the holes, and 

 cross-bradded them, after which no eels escaped. 



This fish has always been held in high esteem as a 

 delicate nutritious article of food, from the earliest 

 periods to which we can trace. ITigel, who states 

 himself to be the "first eonseerated" 'Bishoi^ oi ISlj, 

 appointed to that see in 1133, and who was also 

 Treasurer of England under Henry the First, in 

 his Charter to the monks of Ely, amongst other 

 things gave them twenty-three thousand eels, to be 

 taken in the marshes and waters of the Manor of 

 Stuntney, which he gave them, and six fishermen 

 with their dwelling houses. And the fisheries of 

 Sion Abbey, in the time of Henry the Seventh, with 

 the adjacent islands in the Thames, (given to that reli- 

 gious house by Henry the Fifth), with the breed of 

 hogs belonging to the abbess and her nuns, were of 

 considerable importance to those pious ladies. One 

 of these islands is believed to be Eelpie Island, and 

 there is reason to think that eels formed a great por- 

 tion of their fisheries. (See the collector's account of 

 Sion Abbey, in the public records.) But when 

 Henry the Eighth dissolved that abbey, amongst 

 others, the abbess and nuns sunk (?) the islands, for 

 there is no account of them amongst the possessions 



