204 FISHES I HAVE KNOWN 



seen a lamprey a strange-looking kind of eel, 

 remarkably like a snake. It may be occasionally 

 met with in a West-end fishmonger's shop, but 

 as its appearance is unfamiliar to most people, 

 I will give some particulars of this queer but very 

 toothsome eel, gastronomically reported to be fat 

 and delicate. 



From the town of Worcester a succulent pie 

 of lampreys is annually sent up for the King's 

 acceptance, and, according to a very old custom, 

 should His Majesty happen to pass through the 

 borough, a lamprey-pie is presented to him. 



Potted lampreys are a speciality at Gloucester 

 and Hereford, at which latter city I first became 

 acquainted with them. 



Every schoolboy, of course, knows that Henry I. 

 died in Normandy (i 135), from eating too freely 

 of lampreys ; but I venture to suggest that it 

 was not so much these delicacies as his anxieties 

 and disappointments that killed him, as they did 

 King John, who traditionally expired after a surfeit 

 of peaches and new ale ! 



There are three kinds of British lampreys the 

 sea variety, the river variety, and the miniature 

 lampreys. The first sometimes ascend streams 

 in great numbers. Their colour is brov/n upon 

 yellow, and they are three feet long. The second 



